LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf: ^-s -^ g 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





<m$\ Uf. ScuAcLjf-, 



SHOTS 



^pon? \fye Pulpit- 



errrjonx^ £or Q>sery-Ji)av feife 



BY 

CHARLES W. SAVIDGE, 

Pastor of Seward St. M. E. Church, Omaha, Neb. 

INTRODUCTION BY 

SAM P. JONES. 






'Tis not so much the gems we find, ^pj 

As those we carrv in the mind, 

j , 

'Tis not so much the words we say, 

As 'tis our actions, day by day, 

That open Heaven's gate. 

Alon^o Hilton Davis. 



OMAHA, NEB. : 
The [Republican Co., Printers. 

1888. 



[the library 

OF CONGRESS 
^ASHiyprnvj 



31) 



qp 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, 

By CHARLES W. SAVIDGE, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



* 



? 



OP 



REFACE, 



During the past few months I have chosen living 
topics for my evening sermons. Large congregations have 
been patient enough to listen. Our city papers have pub- 
lished notes of these talks. I have proof that these 
printed reports have been the means of the conversion of 
some precious souls. Friends have advised me to bind 
these sketches together in this little book. I do so, believ- 
ing in the marvelous power of truth. Maj^ these pages, 
written in the hurry of a busy life, be blessed to many 

hearts. 

C. W. S. 



(1 



INTRODUCTION 



This volume of sermons, preached by my friend and 
brother, Rev. C. W. Savidge, in his own pulpit in the City 
of Omaha, goes to the public full of fire and life. As the 
titles of the different sermons suggest, they are racy and 
vigorous. Such a volume as this should have a ready 
sale, for the reading of them will surely give pleasure 
and profit. 

The sermons are like the man — unique, good and 
forcible. I commend them heartily. 

SAM P. JONES. 

Cartersville, Ga., March 26th , 18S8. 




Page 

Great Mistakes 9 

A True Story . . ' 15 

Wives and Mothers 21 

The Great Hereafter 27 

Closed Doors 33 

A Blow to the Bachelors 40 

The Bureau of Charities 48 

Base Ball on the Sabbath 55 

Awful Sin of Profanity 64 

Address to Odd Fellows 69 

Knights of the Grip 72 

Domestic Servants 79 

The Dangers of Domestics 85 

Spread of Salvation ^ 91 

Loafers 96 

The Grocer and his Customers 102 

Mercy for Magdalenes 109 

Clothiers 118 

A Warning to Young Men 124 

The Barbers 129 

The Tobacco Habit 136 

Manliness 142 

Street Car Drivers 146 



Viii CONTENTS. 

Page 

Gambling 152 

The Methodists 158 

The Value of a Trade 164 

Selling Out 167 

The Curse and the Cure 172 

Will it Pay? 183 

Our Duties at Christmas Time 188 

A new Start ' .... 192 

Great Failures and their Causes 1 96 

Elements of Success 202 




(arzat DVListakes. 



|Y subject to-night is "Great Mistakes." The text, 
Acts, xxiv, 25 : "Go thy way for this time; when 
I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." 

I could not have named my subject "Great Blun- 
ders," for a blunder is a laughable mistake. But these 
mistakes I mention to-night are by no means laugh- 
able. They are as solemn as the Judgment day. 

I quality my subject proper by this word great. I do 
not mean little mistakes. Our lives are full of these. I 
have always liked that hymn : 

" The mistakes of my life have been many, 
And the sins of my heart have been more, 
And I scarce can see for weeping, 
But I'll knock at the open door." 



In this sermon I pass over the little mistakes, and 
speak only of those the more significant. These points 
I speak of affect us for two worlds — for time and eternity. 
Let me name some of these mistakes. 

The first great mistake I see is this : Not having a 
business and attending to it. This life here, when you 



10 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

face it, once, is no sham, but the greatest reality. And 
one of the first and greatest fights is the battle for bread. 
Men must eat bread three times a day. And there are 
only three ways of getting it — working, begging and 
stealing. God meant we should work for it. I find so 
many people in need. They want work and do not know 
where to get it. I always ask two questions: "Do you 
know how to do anything?" and, "are you willing to do 
it? " There is plenty of work. Farm hands, mechanics, 
laborers — all can get plenty to do; and the greatest field 
to-day is open for women. There is no lack of work 
now. 

But men and women to-day in many cases do not 
know how to do anything; or, knowing, are ashamed to 
do the useful. I know young women in this city visit- 
ing friends — in other words, sponging their way — who. 
ought to be at work; and many men peddling books 
and rugs who ought to be at work at something honor- 
able and useful. If I had no business, I should start to 
learn one, to-morrow. Young man or woman get up and 
hustle around and get something useful to do. If you 
do not work, you are a mere wart on society. 

The next great mistake men make is this : They do 
not take care of the physical health. A few years ago 
in my college days I heard Mr. Beecher speak. He 
spoke wise words of council to us. Among other things 
he said : " Young gentlemen, take care of your health. 
A good mind in a poor body is like a gun on a corn stalk 
carriage. It kicks over every time." I have never for- 



GREAT MISTAKES. 11 

gotten these words, and I have, for more than fifteen 
years, combined physical labor with mental work. I am 
well, and I want to keep so, if God wills. 

Take care of your health. Keep early hours. Live 
on good plain food. Observe the great laws of your be- 
ing. Do not commit suicide. I do not want to die till 
God wants me to. Many men take their own life in 
two ways. By hard work without proper rest. I saw a 
young lawyer lying in his grave, the other day, who lost 
his life in consequence of the combined strain of the 
labor of his profession, added to the pressure and hurry 
and labors of a political campaign. But the most of in- 
valids are made such by dissipation. Every form of dis- 
sipation is entered into by our young men, to-day, and 
they are laid away in the grave with hands folded across 
the breast at twenty or thirty or forty years, when they 
ought to have given a half century of their best work 
to God and man. We must cry down the customs 
which destroy the health of our young men. The drink 
custom is the chief of these. We must do more to wipe 
out this curse. Lately I have read an account of Boa- 
dicia, the British queen, who went on the field of battle 
in her war chariot, with her fair hair streaming in the 
wind, and her outraged daughters lying at her feet. She 
drove among the troops as swift as the wind and cried to 
them for vengeance on their oppressors. So we must 
do to-day. God help us to be avenged on the greatest 
enemy the race ever had. 

Another great mistake is this : The not having your 



12 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

own home and taking care of it. Here lies the cause of 
much of our trouble. I got a letter the other day from 
a lady in the East. She told me that the sermon I 
preached to the bachelors had been printed in one of the 
papers in her city. And she said, "if you know of any 
of your bachelor friends who wants to take up his cross 
just give him my address " You men without homes 
ought to be ashamed of yourselves when you make it 
necessary for ladies to write to the pastor to stir you up. 
Make a home for yourself or you will. make a great mis- 
take. And home and woman can no more be dissociated 
from each other than can the nautilus from its shell. 
Home-making is the sacred calling for women, and men 
say whether she shall have this work to do or not. 
When you do not have a home you wrong yourself and 
some woman. Then, having a home, take care of it. 
Oh, how that wife will help you; how she will stand by 
your coffin and defend your character when you are 
dead. Don't it seem you ought to be right when she 
will gather up all the true and the good, and look at and 
think of these as long as she lives'? But we see men die 
and leave the wife and children nothing — no property, 
no insurance. For a few dollars a year they could have 
carried a sum which would have helped the wife and 
children. But these men never thought of death long 
enough to arrange at all for it. Take care of your home 
and loved ones. God says : " He that provideth not for 
his own, and especially for his house, hath denied the 
faith and is worse than an infidel." 



GREAT MISTAKES. 13 

But the supreme mistake is the one spoken of in the 
text. Putting off making our peace with God. In this 
text you will see that Paul, the great preacher, spoke to 
Felix, the governor, on the great subjects — Righteous- 
ness, Temperance, and Judgment to come; and the gov- 
ernor trembled and spoke this text : " Go thy way for 
this time ; when I have a convenient season I will call 
for thee." 

Here is the mistake which thousands are making all 
around us to-day. Most men believe, but they are mak- 
ing this fatal mistake. They say, "when I have a 
convenient season." That never comes. Men drop 
down in a moment, and die as they live. When the 
king of Egypt was asked if he wanted the frogs re- 
moved, he said, "Yes; to-morrow." And men say this 
about their sins. Lately I have visited a man of excel- 
lent position, who has a fine mind. He is now upon 
a sick bed. He said, "I have sent for you that I may 
talk with you about the most important of all sub- 
jects — the salvation of my soul." He said, " I believe 
the whole Bible, yet I have not read it for years. I be- 
lieve in churches, yet I have been seen there very sel- 
dom. I believe in Jesus, yet I have not professed Him." 
" Why ? " said I. " Because I have been putting it off; 
but now," he said, " I give my heart to God and my 
hand to the church." Many seem to believe that all the 
time they need for this supreme work is a moment be- 
fore they die. Then they will look up and say, " For- 
give me ! " but you need the longest life to prepare for 



14 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

heaven. If a man makes a greater mistake than the 
neglecting of his own soul, it is this — the hindering of 
others in their greatest work. 

Mr. Beecher and Ingersoll met once. The conversa- 
tion turned on religion. Ingersoll made one of his char- 
acteristic tirades against the Christian religion. The 
gentlemen present replied ; Mr. Beecher was silent. He 
was urged to speak by those present. He said, " My 
mind was intent on what I saw down street this morn- 
ing." He said, " I saw a poor cripple crossing a muddy 
street. When he had reached the centre of the mud 
and water, a great burly man ran out and kicked his 
crutches from under him and he fell." Bobert Ingersoll 
replied, " That man was a brute." Mr. Beecher, rising 
to his feet and with a significant gesture, said, "Bobert 
Ingersoll, you are that man. Poor humanity has the 
crutches of the gospel under it, and you kick the props 
away and men fall into the mire." Do not take away 
this faith from anybody. 

Carelessness, and thoughtlessness and ignorance are 
the causes of procrastination. 

There are remedies for those great mistakes. Do not 
sit down and snarl the threads of life and give up all for 
lost. There is enough of your daylight left to gain a 
splendid victory. You will do well to insure your life. 
You will do better to insure your soul in a company that 
can never break up. Make your peace with God. He 
wants to receive you. 



ssH True Story 



(Y usual custom is to preach a short sermon to the 
children. But this morning, instead of preaching 
to you, I will tell you a true story. And we will call this 
story the children's sermon for to-day. Now for our story: 
A little boy, whom we will call James, was born in the 
city of New York, April 28, 1842. He first remembers 
his father as a kind and industrious man. Every Satur- 
day night he brought home provisions, and something 
for James and his sisters, but soon the father began to 
drink. He abused James' mother and would provide 
nothing for the family. His mother took in washing to 
make a living. Sometimes the father would be taken to 
jail, and the mother would pay the fine out of money she 
had earned by washing. His father drove a hack, and 
James would sleep at the barn to open the stable door 
for his father who would often be out very late at night. If 
the door was not open as soon as the father thought it 
should be, he would whip James most unmercifully. 
Things went on in this way, growing worse and worse, till 
the family were compelled to move into a damp, dark 
basement on Broadway. The mother grew ill from over- 
work. The father, turned into a beast by strong drink, 



16 SHOTS FR03I THE PULPIT. 

pawned the mother's dress and shoes, and even the hed 
clothes, for liquor. His mother would often read the bible 
to the children; and one day she put her arms about her 
son's neck and prayed, "May God take care of my boy;" 
and she made James promise that he would never drink 
strong drink. James was then only six years old, and 
to this day James says that for thirty-seven years he has 
kept that pledge. When he sees a man drinking he al- 
ways thinks of the pledge he made his mother. He 
advises mothers now to pledge their boys against drink. 
His mother died soon after and was buried on the 25th 
of December, 1848. The father was not at home when 
the wife died,. and when some of the friends sent for him 
he came to the funeral drunk. 

James lived poorly enough after this. He would sleep 
in a butcher's cart, or a charcoal box, or in an alley. 
Often men would stumble over him in the dark, and some- 
times they would almost kick the life out of his poor little 
body. 

Now, since his mother is dead and his father is so cruel 
to him, James looks about to see how he can better his 
own condition. He engaged himself as a cabin boy on a 
vessel which sailed to South America. He was abroad 
two years. When he came back he went on a trip to 
Liverpool. When James returned from England he re- 
ceived the news from some of the stable men that his 
father had died of delirium tremens, and I suppose James 
did not shed many tears. How could he cry at the loss 
of such a father ? Now James goes to selling matches and 



A TRUE STOKY. 17 

papers. There was one incident while he was in this 
vr >rk which has greatly interested me. One Sunday 
morning, as he was going up Bleecker street with an arm- 
ful of Sunday papers, a gentleman hailed him, and he 
went upon the stoop and sold him a paper. The gentle- 
man handed him a half dollar in payment; James told 
him he would bring him the change in the morning. 
But at that time he had no thought of doing so. The 
next morning, as he was passing the same place, a voice 
in the boy's breast said : " Give the gentleman his 
change." He did so. The gentleman was surprised, 
and said : " Well, my boy, I never expected to see you 
or the change. And I would not have cared much, for 
you seem to need the money. But I am glad to see that 
you are honest." 

The gentleman told him to bring him a paper every 
morning, and he also spoke to others concerning the 
Tionest newsboy. As a result of that one honest act 
James soon had fifty regular customers. He found that 
day that honesty paid, and it has paid him all through 
his life. 

One day, when James and his chum, Dick, were sitting 
on the curb stone, a Shaker passed along the street. 
Dick called out, " Hello, Broadbrim, want to buy some 
matches ? " The Shaker did not want to buy any matches, 
but he talked to the boys, and when he found they had 
no father nor mother, he asked them if they would not 
like to go into the country, to live, and have some good, 
warm clothes — for it was winter — and lots of apples, and 



18 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

nuts. James said, " Let's go and try it awhile anyhow." 1 
But Dick said, " No ; he will work us to death." To 
this James replied : " If we do not like it we can run 
away. They can't keep us if we don't like their style.. 
You know two or three times we were sent to the house 
of refuge on Eandall's Island, and we swam over the river 
and got away." Dick refused to go, but James decided to 
go then and there. He gave Dick what stock he had, and 
said "good bye," and was off. He has never seen Dick 
since, but he has often wondered how he has prospered. 
]STor has James ever been able to find his sisters, though 
he has often tried to find them. The two Shakers, who 
were in the city of New York that day, took out to their 
homes, four boys and two girls. James was one of the 
boys. 

They reached their home about dark. They were soon 
invited in to supper. James says he did ample justice to 
the meal. After supper he took a bath and was given a 
clean, warm suit of Shaker clothes, and they put him in a 
clean, beautiful bed — a feather bed. He says he thought 
that night he was very near heaven. The next day 
he was shown around the place and was told to help him- 
self to a barrel of apples and nuts which sat near at hand. 
Soon he was sent to school and was given some light 
work to do. Afterwards he was taught to do several 
kinds of work well. He learned how to drive a team, to 
work in wood, and to do many useful things. 

These were the New Lebanon Shakers, in the state of 
New York, who showed kindness to James. How kind 
we should be to the poor and neglected about us. 



A TRUE STORY. 19 

A good woman in Germany spoke a kind word to 
Martin Lnther when be was a boy, and tbis changed his 
whole life. A lady in one of our cities saw a little bare- 
foot boy slip down on the pavement on Sabbath morning. 
She took him by the hand and led him into the Sabbath 
school and was kind to him. And truly she helped one 
of the brightest minds, and truest hearts, and purest 
speakers our Methodism has developed — our own loved 
and now lamented Bishop Wiley. 

In May, 1860, James left the Shakers; not because 
they did not treat him well, but because he did not be- 
lieve in their religion. Soon after this he enlisted in the 
war for the union. He served three years in the war, 
seven months of which time he was in the rebel prison. 
Here he suffered much from hunger. He lost sixty-five 
pounds weight while in the prison, but in due time he 
was mustered out of the service and again took up the 
battle of life. 

Our boy, James, came to Omaha in July, 1867. He 
worked down on the river, stacking lumber. He was 
manied, by the Eev. Mr. McOandlish, to an excellent 
lady. He worked a farm out where the deaf and dumb 
institute now stands ; he worked hard and saved a little 
every year. Now James takes another step up ; he be- 
comes a christian. Mrs. Van Oott was holding revival 
services in the First Methodist Episcopal church, on 
Seventeenth street. He thought it would be nice to hear 
a lady preach. He attended the services. He was 
deeply interested. He brought his wife and two little 



20 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

children every night for six or seven weeks. He thong] it 
of many others who ought to become christians, but he 
did n )t feel his own need, till one night Mrs. Van Cott 
preached from the text, " What is that to thee, follow 
thou me." Then, when he felt he ought to be a christian, 
he thought God ought to save him there without his 
going to the altar. But God does not come to the terms 
of men. Then James made up his mind to seek God at 
the altar. He arose to go; he was converted that mo- 
ment. His load of sin was gone. James was a christian. 

As we close, let us take one more look at this boy, 
whose life we have given in outline. 

Two weeks ago to-day he entertained me at his home 
in Springfield, Neb. He has a valuable farm worth 
$10,000 of any man's money. His large barn is full of 
stock, well cared for. He has a pleasant home, a well 
selected library, in which are found the best temperance 
books. He is an officer in the Methodist church. He is 
liberal to help every good cause. He has four children — 
two boys and two girls. These children are obedient, 
quiet and industrious. Truly God has wonderfully 
blessed this poor boy. May his life long be spared to 
honor God, is my prayer. 

Let us thank God for His great goodness to us, and let 
us not despair, by the help of God, of coming up even 
from the lowest place. 



Wives auci D/tethers. 



WILL address this sermon to Wives and Mothers, and 
will take as my text, Pro v. xxxi, 28: "He rchildren 
rise np and call her blessed ; her husband also, and he 
praiseth her." The text draws the likeness of the true 
wife and faithful mother. Her children call her blessed 
and her husband cannot help but speak her praise. We 
have in mind now such a wife and mother. She stood 
at the marriage altar with her young husband more than 
forty years ago. She was very young. The old ladies 
of the neighborhood said she ought to be playing with 
her dolls yet. But she took up the heavy duties of the 
wife and mother as though she had been born for the 
place, as indeed she was. 

She and her husband started with nothing, so she was 
given an opportunity to be a real helpmeet to the man 
who walked by her side. One child after another came 
and was received as a gift from heaven. They moved 
to the far west and performed the labors incidental to a 
new country. The war came and the wife told her hus- 
band to go and fight for the flag, while she kept the chil- 
dren at home. When the morning and evening came she 
reads in the bible and she and the children pray. The 



22 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

years go on, and the husband comes back. The sons and 
daughters struggle for an education and then go out to 
life's work, all this time having a mother's sympathy and 
help. Do you wonder now that the sons say, " I wish 
you knew my mother ; she is splendid;" or is it a surprise 
to you that when the husband, now past sixty, comes in 
and does not see his wife he asks, " Where is mother ? " 
No wonder, for she has been a help and an honor to 
him for more than forty years. 

Again, I have seen a wife and mother who has been 
the possessor of about all the goodness there was in the 
home. The man, twenty years ago, promised to love, 
honor and cherish the wife until death came, but he has 
been false to his vows many a time. He has spent more 
evenings at the saloon than at home; so the wife has 
borne the brunt of the battle. Though her husband has 
been unworthy, she still loves the man she promised to, 
though it is impossible for her to love the thing he has 
become. This woman whom I am now describing, and 
whom some of you know, has such strength of character, 
and is so noble and true, that she makes the living and 
keeps the children respectable in spite of the father's 
effort to drag them down. God in heaven says : " The 
true wife, the faithful mother." 

Again, I have seen another little woman come home 
from the wedding trip, and as I looked at her I said in 
my heart: "The groom has made a mistake; she does 
not amount to anything ; she is a dressy little thing of 
no consequence." But after she had walked with her 



WIVES AND MOTHERS. 23 

husband a few years God took him away. The little 
woman kept the children together, brought them up to 
obey the laws and fear God, and lived a brave and noble 
life till the end. Nothing can compare with the silent 
work in obscure dwellings of faithful women bringing 
their children to honor, virtue and piety. 

The picture I have drawn of the true wife and mother 
suggests its opposite. There are wives and mothers liv- 
ing near us, walking our streets and coming to our 
churches, who are false and untrue, and before I go on to 
develop this thought, I want to give you two reasons for 
the fact. If every woman had her ideal husband she 
would die before she would be untrue to him; but now, 
after years have passed, her husband seems so unlike 
what she thought he would be, consequently she becomes 
wretched. Or, I may say, she has not God in her heart 
or life. He is not in all her thoughts. Then naturally 
enough she becomes utterly dissatisfied with the company 
of her husband and children. She rides with a gentle- 
man friend and is surprised when her husband finds it 
out. She seeks company which is not the best; she talks 
smut, she drinks wine, she does many things which send 
souls to hell. She keeps going od, for souls never stop. 
You see her go through the handkerchief flirtation' on the 
street and on the trains. The shutters of her house are 
turned a certain way when her husband goes to his work, 
and the lamp is placed in the window at night as a signal 
that the coast is clear to raise the devil. And what is 
wonderful, age does not destroy the possibility of wrong 



24 SHOTS FROM THE PULl\T. 

doing. We have known mothers who have stood high 
in society and in the church, whose sons were grown, 
who would walk so near the precipice of hell that our 
heads grew dizzy, as we looked at them. Such wives and 
mothers live within a half mile of this church, or, per- 
haps they are your next-door neighbor; or, are you sure 
I am not drawing the likeness of some of you ? 

The text points out results. It gives us a glimpse of 
the blessings of the true wife and mother. How blessed 
are those of whom this text can be spoken ! Happy wife 
and mother ! Her husband is a king, and her children 
are the possessors of untold wealth. They go out into 
the world with good principle, and with precious memo- 
ries of home and mother. 

John Euskin had such a mother, for he says, " The 
most precious, and on the whole the most essential part 
of all my education was given me by my mother." 

Thomas H. Benton said, " When I was seven years of 
age, my mother asked me to take a triple pledge against 
tobacco, gambling and strong drink." We are told upon 
good authority that he never broke that pledge. 

The mother of Philip Doddridge, when her son was 
quite a little boy, used to teach him scripture history 
from the Dutch tiles of the fire-place on which were 
pictures of subjects taken from the Bible. He never 
forgot those early instructions, and probably to them, 
under God, his future character and usefulness may be 
traced. 

Dr. Johnson said he distinctly remembered the time 



WIVES AND MOTHERS. 25 

and place where his mother first taught him of heaven, 
where good people go, and of hell, where bad people go. 

Out of one hundred and twenty candidates for the 
ministry, it was found that more than one hundred 
attributed their religious experience to the example and 
prayers of their mothers. The result is happiness to 
the mother, prosperity to the husband, and untold good 
to the children. 

The results which come to the false wife and mother 
can never fully be told. The wife cannot be happy. 
She sees her wrong doing in the look of every honest 
soul. She makes a mighty effort to be jolly, but she 
weeps and resolves in secret. The husband and father 
is wretched. When he loses faith in his wife, he loses 
faith in everyone. Wealth and friends are nothing, if the 
woman he trusted is not good. The awful results are 
seen in the children. Byron's mother was not good. 
She called that handsome, talented, club-footed boy 
" the lame brat." What sorrow and shame must fill the 
heart of a child when it comes to know that " mother 
is bad." 

I would, in closing, give some words of counsel. To 
the good I would only say, be good. " The path of the 
just is as a shining light, which shineth more and more 
until the perfect day." May your life grow better, till 
with your loved ones you stand in the presence of the 
king. 

To the husbands of bad women, I would recommend 
you to adopt the plan of Lorenzo Dow, when he raised 



26 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

the devil. Dow stopped at a certain house all night. 
He was put in a loft above the main room to sleep. The 
husband was away. A neighbor came in and spent the 
evening with the lady of the house. Soon the husband, 
somewhat intoxicated, was heard at the door. The wife 
secreted the neighbor in an empty barrel and hastily 
threw some wool over his head. The husband was noisy. 
The wife told him to keep still, as Lorenzo Dow was in the 
house. Then, said the drunken man, " He must get up 
and raise the devil." Dow was called up. The preacher 
said, if he must, he must. He told the husband to stand 
at the door and hit the old fellow a good lick as he passed. 
Dow went to the barrel and told the devil to come forth, 
and out he ran with some of the wool sticking to his 
head, but he did not escape the good lick from the club 
the husband held in his hand. When a man is in the 
wrong place, if he is hit with a club or followed with a 
shotgun, he ought not to be surprised. 

To the false wife and mother I would say, look to see 
the results of your course, Not only will your own life 
be blighted and your own soul destroyed, but those who 
look to you for an example will be dragged down to 
hell. Throw the devil aside and take God. Be true 
to God and earthly love. Make your husband happy 
and teach your children to love him and God, and through 
all eternity you will be glad. 



The (areat 3{ereafter 



|Y subject this morning is "Immortality," and we 
take as our text I Corinthians, xv, 53: "This 
mortal must put on immortality." 

This doctrine of immortality lies at the basis of faith 
and holy living. You can readily see that if men did 
not believe in any hereafter, it would be perfectly reason- 
able for them to say, " Let us eat and drink, for to-mor- 
row we die." 

What a mighty police force this doctrine of immor- 
tality is. All men have some opinion concerning this 
truth. A few deny a future state. If things were what 
they seem, they would be right, for no voice comes back. 
Life seems to go out in silence and darkness, and gives 
back no sign to tell us what it has found. This opinion 
is often born of fear. And this very fear postulates a 
hereafter. 

Others say, " We do not know." They are called ag- 
nostics or know-nothings. Gambetta, the French states- 
man, says : " It is a great toss-up what lies on the 
other side of the grave." Many millions accept it. The 
more a soul is true to itself and Gocl, the more it shrinks 
from extinction, as an infinite loss. Let us give some 



28 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

reasons for believing this doctrine of immortality. Many 
Christians cannot tell why they believe they shall live 
hereafter. 

First, we say it is possible. As Bishop Butler shows 
in his "Analogy," " That I shall live, is really not so 
wonderful as that I do live." He speaks of that be- 
ginning and marvelous development of being, before 
birth, and asks, "Who now can doubt the possibility of 
immortality?" Xot only is immortality possible, but 
we affirm that it is probable. I would ask you, for what 
purpose is this life, if death ends all? Can you think for 
a moment that the boat in which we ride is sailing on a 
shoreless sea and for no port. Life is a mystery, dark as 
night, if this be all. 

Immortality is a dictate of nature. We see decay in 
all her works. The dissolution of all the forms of vegeta- 
ble and animal life. But the plant and tree are not an- 
nihilated. There is no destruction — only change in the 
material world. The tree is only resolved into primitive 
elements, and if these elements or particles are left to 
themselves, they come up in more beautiful combina- 
tions. In nature, death is not an end, but a beginning. 
Longfellow was right when he said : 

' ' There is no death ; 

What seems so is transition." 

A century ago a dying infidel, German countess, or- 
dered that her grave be covered with a solid granite slab ; 
that around it should be placed solid blocks of stone, and 



THE GREAT HEREAFTER. 29' 

the whole be fastened together by strong iron clamps, 
and that on the stone be cut these words : " This burial 
place, purchased to all eternity, must never be opened." 
But a little seed sprouted uucler the covering, and the 
tiny shoot found its way through between two of the 
stones, and grew there slowly and surely, until it burst 
the clamps asunder, and, lifting the immense block, the 
structure ere long became a confused mass of rock, 
among which in verdure and beauty grew the great oak 
which had caused the destruction. Thus truth dislodges 
error and spreads her branches in splendor above the 
ruins of the false. 

The instinct of immortality is a heritage of all man- 
kind, and the leading minds of the leading races have 
given expression to this heart instinct. Bulwer Lytton 
says : "Man has instinct that leads him from the seen 
to the unseen, from time to eternity." And this means 
something when we remember that no instinct is ever 
given in vain. The humblest man in this belief has the 
prerogative of royalty. The Egyptians, as far back as 
history reaches, embalmed the body of the dead to pre- 
serve it till the soul's return. Look away back in the 
history of the Greek state, and Plato and his renowned 
teacher are trying to push the curtain of the future 
aside. Look up the " Dialogues of Plato." When one 
of the Greeks died, a piece of money was put in his 
mouth to pay his passage across the river of death. In 
a recently discovered cemetery of Ancient Athens, dated 
a 3k 400 B. C, there Avas a picture of the boatman 
about to take the souls over. 



30 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Plutarch says : " The soul came from the gods and 
will return to them again." Our Xorth American In- 
dians believe in the happy hunting grounds, ^ot long- 
before his death, Senator Hill, of Georgia, said : "If a 
grain of corn will die and rise again into so much 
beauty, why may not I die and rise again into infinite 
beauty and life ? " 

Mr. Ingersoll has most wonderfully expressed this 
thought : " All wish for happiness beyond this life. All 
hope to meet again the loved and lost. In every heart 
there grows this sacred flower of eternal hope. Immor- 
tality is a word that hope, through all the ages, has been 
whispering back to love." 

Victor Hugo's words are most beautiful and worthy to 
be remembered always : 

" I feel within myself the future life. I am like a for- 
est that has been more than once cut down. The new 
shoots are livelier than ever. I am rising, I know, to- 
ward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The earth 
gives me its generous sap, but heaven lights me with the 
reflection of unknown worlds. The nearer I approach 
the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal 
symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It is mar- 
velous — yet simple. It is a fairy tale — yet history. I 
improve every hour because I love this world as my 
fatherland. My work is only a beginning. My monu- 
ment is hardly above its foundation. I would be glad to 
see it mounting and mounting forever. The thirst for 
the infinite proves infinity." 



THE GREAT HEREAFTER. 31 

The very make-up of man is a prophecy of the future. 
The existence of mind, for example. Mind is immor- 
tality; thought is immortal. Whatever is pure and 
noble and holy in the realm of thought will never die. 
Do you believe the thinker will ? 

Toward the close of his life, Kant's giant intellect be- 
came clouded ; but can you believe it went out forever 1 
Mind is capable of indefinite expansion. Mind goes on 
almost without limit, producing new and yet more beau- 
tiful forms of good. Do you believe that Morse and 
Newton and Franklin and Lincoln are dead ? 

Man's conscience is another prophecy in his make-up. 
If this life is all, there is no place for such a faculty as 
conscience in one hand and her peace like a river in the 
other. But man is a spirit. He has a soul and this pos- 
tulates a hereafter. - I now mention a proof, questioned 
by some, but to me, of value. Some are permitted to 
look over and see the next world. A sister of one of 
our prominent citizens dying, exclaimed, " Oh, mother," 
as if she saw the glory world. An aged minister when 
dying in this city lifted up his hand as a sign, previously 
agreed to, that he saw the heavenly city. And my own 
brother, Samuel Savidge, of Kearney, in the hour of 
death, said, " I am not afraid to go; there is a light, and 
I see Bessie." 

God has said that we shall live hereafter: "This 
mortal must put on immortality." " For we know that 
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, 
we have a building of God, a house not made with 



32 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

bauds eternal in the heavens." And our Lord plainly 
says : " I go to prepare a place for you." 

In conclusion, we would say eternal existence is no 
proof of eternal blessedness. Man may be eternally 
miserable. " Some to shame and everlasting contempt," 
says the Divine word. But we may be happy. Immor- 
tal happiness is the full, bright, exercise of our best pow- 
ers. To such as waste the present, the future will not — 
nay, cannot bring happiness. There is no harmony be- 
tween such an one and the world of purity. " A hu- 
man being who has lived without God and self-improve- 
ment, can no more enjoy heaven than a mouldering body 
lifted from the tomb amid beautiful prospects, can enjoy 
the light through its decayed eyes, or feel the balmy air 
that blows away its dust." 

What shall be your lot — misery or happiness 1 It is 
for you to say. 




(Closed ©oors. 



Y text is taken from Nehemiah, xiii, 19: "I com- 
manded that the gates should be shut, and 
charged that they should not be opened till after the 
Sabbath." 

The subject given at greater length is : "A plea for 
the Saloon Doors to be Closed on the Sabbath." 

I preach this sermon at the request of a mother in this 
city. 

Whenever a mother gives me a subject I know there 
is something in it. 

In the text we read of Nehemiah, who was the mayor 
of the city of Jerusalem. 

The walls of Jerusalem had been newly built and the 
gates rehuug. The mayor issued two celebrated orders 
with reference to the closing of the gates. The first one 
is found in ^"ehemiah, vii, 3 : "Let them shut the doors 
and bar them." 

The poiut of the order is this : There were many 
enemies who were ready to make an assault on the city 
under the cover of night, and the mayor ordered every 
man to stand guard over the part of the wall that was 



34 SHOTS FR03I THE PULPIT. 

over against his own bouse. He ordered that the gates 
should be locked and barred and not opened until the hot 
sun shone down. 

Order No. 2, Ave find in the text. When Mayor Nehe- 
miah took charge of the city the people did not reverence 
the Sabbath. All kinds of wares were brought in and 
sold on this holy day. Nehemiah said that sort of thing- 
must be stopped ; if you don't stop Sabbath breaking, 
said Nehemiah, God himself will be our enemy. 

"By this very course," said the mayor, "we have 
brought upon ourselves all the trouble we ever had," and 
he follows these words up by issuing this celebrated or- 
der which is our text to-night. Listen to the brave 
words: "I commanded that the gates should be shut 
and charged that they should not be opened till after the 
Sabbath." 

One of these orders had reference to earthly enemies, 
the other guarded against displeasing God. These closed 
doors did much for the city of Jerusalem. 

But we have a stronger case than Nehemiah had — for 
drink on any day of the week will kill more thau the 
sword. It not only kills the body, but the soul, as well. 

The doors of the saloons are open on the Sabbath. 
This statement needs no proof. Walk our streets on the 
Sabbath, day or night. In many cases you will see the 
front doors of these houses of death open — wide open. 
And if by some chance the front door is closed, the back 
door is ajar, and "don't you forget it ! " 

There is no trouble about getting into an Omaha 
saloon on the Sabbath, if you have a desire to do so. 



CLOSED DOOES. 35 

Look at the case as it is. A few people in the churches 
engaged in the worship of God — praying lor the spread 
of Christ's kingdom — these same church people doing- 
little and afraid their soul is their own. 

On the other hand, two hundred saloons with open 
doors, licensed to damn men, body and soul; making men 
insane with whisky; inciting them to deeds of violence 
and bloodshed. To a man up a tree, it would appear 
that the Christian people ought to speak out and do 
something. With this state of things how long do you 
think it will be before Omaha will be converted ? My 
judgment is, it will take sometime before this town is 
sanctified. John CI. Saxe's lines have more truth than 
poetry in them: 

" Where whisky shops, the livelong night, 
Are vending out their poisoned juice ; 
Where men are often very tight, 
And women deemed a trifle loose." 

Now for our argument against the open Sunday saloon. 

It is in direct opposition to the laws of our state. The 
Slocum law provides, among other things as follows : 

Section 8 — Prohibits sale to anyone under twenty- 
one years of age. 

Section 10 — Prohibits sale to all habitual drunkards. 

Section 14 — Prohibits sale on election days and Sun- 
days, and provides for a fine of $100. 

Section 29 — Provides that all saloon-keepers who 
have license shall keep the windows and doors of their 



36 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

places unobstructed by screens, blinds or paint, or other 
articles, and that any person offending against the pro- 
visions of this section, upon conviction, shall be fined not 
less than twenty-five dollars, or be imprisoned in the 
county jail not less than ten days, or both, and shall 
have his license revoked by the authority that granted it. 

You can see at a glance that the open Sunday saloon 
breaks this law in every particular. 

The open saloon on the Sabbath is the bane of our 
young men. Here they resort. This is their day of 
leisure, and they spend it in the saloon. Sixty men came 
out of a Saunders street saloon in thirty minutes on a 
Sabbath lately, their ages ranging from fifteen to thirty. 
A mother says : " My boys go to the saloon on Sab- 
bath and spend much of their time. They get into bad 
company and often do bad things." 

If it were only the old men who are affected by this 
evil the result would not be so awful ; but the young 
men, who are the hope of the city, are thus corrupted 
and ruined. 

The Sunday saloon is the worst enemy that the work- 
in gman has. Low wages and powerful corporations are 
not the worst enemies of the workingman. Your greatest 
enemy is the open Sunday saloon. 

The Sunday dissipation robs you of health and 
strength. After a Sunday carousal, instead of being- 
rested for work Monday, you are completely exhausted, 
and often it is Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning 
ore you are found at your post of duty. By this 



CLOSED DOORS. 6t 

means, too, your money is taken from you. The very 
men drink who cannot afford it. 

If some one should mark the bills, with red ink, that 
are paid you Saturday night, many of these would he 
found in the till of the saloon-keeper Monday morning. 
And this is money that is earned by hard licks. This 
seems to me the hardest thing: to see the workingman 
throw away his money — yes, worse than throw it away. 

The Sunday saloon is the cause of many of you being 
thrown into jails. Fifteen men on an average come be- 
fore our police judge every morning; but Monday morn- 
ing there are seventy to be disposed of. 

It is a standing wonder to me that our people do not 
raise their voices against the outrages committed upon 
the workman. If there is a class of men who suffer more, 
it is the soldiers at our forts with their barracks sur- 
rounded by saloons. Let us pray that the common 
people, and Uncle Sam, himself, may have a baptism of 
common sense. God hasten the day ! 

The Sunday saloon is the foe of the home. Anything 
that menaces the peace or prosperity of the "home" is 
the avowed enemy of the people. Some one has said : 
"A nation is only the union of many homes whose people 
speak one language and who have many interests in 
common." The chief executive may be corrupt, and both 
houses of congress tainted with evil, but if the homes of 
the people are pure and good, ail is well. But if the base 
of the pyramid is unsound, the whole structure will be a 
mass of ruins. Well, do you not know that from the 
open Sunday saloon pitchers and pails of beer and whisky 



38 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

are carried into the homes of our people. This is as true 
as God's truth. We must beware lest the homes become 
corrupted. 

Again: the Sunday saloon brings the greatest sorrow 
to wives and mothers. Some of the wives get up in the 
morning determined to make the most of the sacred day. 
But the husband goes to the saloon ; how then can the 
wife be happy ; how can she go to church when her 
heart is breaking with sorrow and dread ? My God ! is it 
true that these poor women can not have one day of 
safety from the rum fiend ? 

A few centuries ago men fought with lance and spear 
in the lists for women. What an opportunity for brave 
and true men now to champion the cause of broken- 
hearted women. 

Oh, for a revival of the ancient days of chivalry ! 

But the open saloon on the Sabbath is a flagrant sin 
against God. By permitting these places to be open on 
Sabbath we are party to two of the worst sins in the 
decalogue — Sabbath breaking and murder. 

The blood of more than one murdered man is already 
on our hands, because of the Sunday saloon. And be 
sure we shall pay the price. God does not exact pay by 
the day, or month, but He demands it in full, at last. 

"The mills of the gods grind slowly, 
But they grind exceeding fine." 

You ask the question, How can these doors be closed I 
This is no light task, for two reasons ; our people like 
the stuff. 



CLOSED DOORS. 39 

They sing the song of the "Little Brown Jug" in ap- 
parent jest, but I affirm that they sing it in real earnest. 
Then there is money to some men in the open Sunday 
saloon, and Americans will do anything for money. 
These states roll on the wheels of silver dollars. 

Mark this : The mayor of Jerusalem issued orders 
which closed the doors of that city. And the council and 
the police commission never whimpered, either. 

Pray for the mayor of this city that he may have a 
will like iron and a backbone like a whale. 

Then the people helped the mayor. The people stood 
guard over that part of the wall which was opposite their 
own houses. They did not oppose but helped. How 
can one man do all this work ? 

What a picture ! All the lazy loafers and cowards in 
this town in a wagon and the mayor in the shafts, pulling 
them, and one and another saying : " Touch him up 
boys." Let some of us get out and help push, and 
quit growling. But the great majority of the people on 
this question are cowards. They are afraid of their own 
heads. They say, " the cat ought to have a bell on, 
but who is going to do it!" They are afraid. When 
they tell you a fact about this accursed business, they 
say, " don't use my name." 

The people are a set of cowards. " One is afraid, and 
the other dares not." 

The people are the sovereigns of the state. If they 
want the present condition of affairs, they can have it.. 
When they want reform, they can bring it about. 



si^ Blow to the Bachelor: 



TAKE my text to-night from Judges, xiv, 3 — " Get 
lier for me; for she pleaseth me well." I believe in 
texts that fit. 

My subject this evening is "Marriage," and I will ad- 
dress this sermon to bachelors. I have come to the con- 
clusion that something must be done with this class of 
sinners. I would hardly advocate the policy that the 
government has adopted with respect to the bachelor 
seals, however. The government suffers the killing of 
only one hundred thousand of these animals annually, 
and this number is taken from the unmated bachelors. 
But, jokes aside, I have come from your ranks so lately 
that I think I know what you need. You need light: — 
you need information. Tremblingly you stand on the 
border of an unexplored land and you want some traveler 
to return and tell you the facts. My heart beats in sym- 
pathy with you. I would reach out my hand and help 
you over into the land of Beulah. 

To-day, if men have anything to say on a subject of 
importance, they write a book, or make a speech, or 
deliver a sermon. I shall do the last named, and you 
may call it what you please. 



A BLOW TO THE BACHELORS. 41 

God has given many a sermon on this topic. In the 
first chapter He wrote He talks of the right relations of 
man and woman. Some of the most touchingty beauti- 
ful stories in the Divine Word are on this very subject 
of marriage. Go home and take down your grand- 
mother's Bible, and read again God's account of the 
marriage of Isaac and Eebekah and Boaz and Ruth. In 
the last book of the Bible Christ calls the church His 
bride. 

Great governments have found it necessary to speak 
out on this subject. The Roruan republic and our own 
land are noted examples. This country realizes that the 
great perils that threaten us are those which aim their 
deadly shafts at the marriage altar and the home circle. 

Do any of you know of a thing more important to all 
of our highest interests than right doing in the home ? 
When Robert Burns pictured the pious homes of Scot- 
land did he paint the picture any too brightly? He 
says : 

" From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs." 

If all our young men would make good homes for 
themselves and then be true to those homes, no harm 
could come to us. 

But men all around us of proper age are hesitating to 
enter the marriage relation. Hotels, boarding houses 
and private residences, full of unmarried men, and young 
women going to store, office and factory, meeting the 
steru battle of life alone. 



42 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

These men try to justify themselves in a life of celi- 
bacy. 

One says, " I could not get a wife who has the qualifi- 
cations I demand or the presence I admire." I am sure 
you can find some one as intelligent and as good looking 
as you, for some of you are not overly smart and you 
are homely enough to turn milk sour. 

Another says, " Women of the present day are so ex- 
travagant I could not support one." You ought to read 
what Washington Irving says about the wife of his 
friend Leslie, coming to the rescue in the hour of finan- 
cial ruin. One of the teachers of our schools said lately, 
when asked if she was about to be married, "No, 
thank you, my salary won't admit of it." I tell you what 
is a fact. These women are fearful that if they marry 
they will have to keep you. 

Then, too, one says, "It is so dangerous. So many 
have trouble." That is a fact. When George Whit- 
field's wife died he said he felt greatly relieved, and John 
Wesley's wife tortured him until he left her. I am told 
that, a few months ago, one of my bachelor friends in this 
city entered the relation, and his wife made it so hot for 
him that he now finds an asylum at the hotel. I simply 
say, " The exceptions make the rule." These things 
will happen ; there is a possibility of trouble on every 
road that runs through this world, and as likely as not, 
the more fear you show, the worse you will get it at last. 

Many men say, " I have lost faith in woman." This 
eomes with a poor grace from man when he has tried 



A BLOW TO THE BACHELORS. 43 

every power to make woman bad — then looking down at 
his own work, lie says " I have lost confidence." Away 
with this foolishness ! Let man treat woman right and 
she will be right. Let him drag her down and she be- 
comes a fiend incarnate. 

Another reason way men don't marry is, they want to 
start where the old people leave off. A father said to a 
young man, not long ago, " You can't keep my daugh- 
ter as she is accustomed to live." " Oh, we have ar- 
ranged that," said the young admirer, " I am to come 
and live with you and when you and the old lady die we 
will start where you leave off." Men are now looking 
for just such snaps as that. Men erroneously believe 
that their freedom will be curtailed. You are greatly 
mistaken. You are by no means as free now as you will 
be when you have a home of your own. 

But I tell you, the great reason is, you do not know 
what you are missing — neither can any one tell you. 

I notice in the second place, the reasons for marriage. 

It is a manly thing. That girl is meeting life alone. 
You can help her and make her happy as a queen, if you 
try. The old bachelor will get very mad over it, but he 
is extremely selfish and mean. 

The marriage relation is better for you in every way. 
The married man lives longer and does better work 
while he stays here. The wife is a great help. A great 
man says, "It is impossible for me to be a good man, 
without a good woman to help me." 

In your very heart you long for love and home — and 



44 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

God himself put that longing there. Elizabeth Stuart 
Phelphs says, "The most loving filial position cannot 
satisfy the mature man or woman in any world;" and 
I believe it. 

Good men advocate the marriage relation. Dr. Adam 
Clark says, " Marriage is the first sacrament, the oldest 
means of grace. A man ought to be thankful for a bad 
wife — she is so much better than none." 

After twenty-eight years of experience, Faraday said, 
"My marriage was an event which, more than any 
other, has contributed to my earthly happiness, and 
healthy state of mind." For forty-six years the union 
continued unbroken, the love of the old man remaining 
as fresh, earnest #nd whole-hearted as in the clays of his 
youth. 

James Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam hammer, 
had a similarly happy experience. He says, " Forty- 
two years of married life finds us the same devoted 
' cronies ' as we were at the beginning." 

Dr. Arnold often dwelt upon " The rare — the un- 
broken, the almost awful happiness of his domestic life;" 
and he carried the first feelings of enthusiastic love and 
watchful care through twenty-two years of wedded life. 
Charles Kingsley wrote to his wife : "People who talk 
of love ending at the altar are fools." No biography 
of Bishop Gilbert Haven would be complete without 
a touching account of his unchanging and undying love 
for " His Mary." 

Old Hickory was often thought to be rough, but he 



A BLOW TO THE BACHELORS. 45 



never forgot his wife. The last thing the iron man did 
at night was to read in her book of Common Prayer with 
her miniature before him, and during the day he wore 
her picture over his heart,' suspended from his neck by a 
strong black cord. After she had been dead fifteen 
years, pointing to her tomb, he said: "Her wish to me 
is law." 

Josh Billings thought well of the relation when he 
said : u Marry young, and if you make a hit keep still 
and don't brag about it." 

But the great clinching argument is : " Marriage is 
ordained of God." It is the divine arrangement. " A 
man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave 
unto his wife" — and mark this, you can't improve on 
God's plan. If you don't marry some day you will die 
alone, and the servants will steal the very pennies oft 
your eyes, and those who do not especially love you, will 
follow you to the grave and drive home on a run to quar- 
rel over what you have left. 

I will speak briefly on the motives which should gov- 
ern you in the choice. Do not use Samson's motive. 
He was pleased with the appearance of his girl and mar- 
ried her, but he regretted the step. Not fancy, but 
sound judgment should be your guide. Happy mar- 
riages are founded upon respect and mutual fitness. 
They are undertaken with more clear thought and pre- 
paration than moonshine and gum-drops. 

Ben Franklin said : " Other things being equal, the 
eldest daughter of a large family is the best." 



46 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Ask God to help you choose, then use the best sense 
you have and go ahead. 

The text also points out the manner of bringing this 
event about. Samson's father helped him, but from 
the result, I advise you to attend to the arrangements 
yourself. 

You ought, first, to get ready. Get a dollar ahead if 
you can — you'll need it. But if you have not made a 
fortune and don't expect to, marry any way. The other 
day a man was married, bought tickets to a railroad 
town ten miles distant and had ten cents left. Said he 
to his new wife, " Sal, let's have some soda water." 
When such people as that start out, don't wait, if you 
haven't made a fortune. Do the square thing with 
everybody when you are getting married. Don't ask 
the preacher what the bill is ; that always throws a 
coldness over the meeting. Have a good size bill folded 
and enclosed in an envelope and hand it to the minis- 
ter with your thanks, and don't give him less than five 
dollars or he will forget you. If he is an old man, and 
nearing the end of his ministerial career, give him all 
the larger sum. 

In closing, I would say, make your married life all it 
ought to be. The good or ill fortune of your marriage 
does not depend upon the day, but upon the conduct of 
the contracting parties. 

Be a man, hustle around and make a good living. A 
wife and six children can't live on love and air. 

Do right — don't ask your wife to live either with a 



A BLOW TO THE BACHELORS. 47 

bear or a hog. If she drank and lay out of doors all 
night you would not live with her an hour, and people 
would applaud you for it, too. 

Do not ask your wife to leave you because you are 
still making a brute of yourself. 

You never know what intemperance is till it gets into 
your home in good shape. 

God grant your wife may never know ! 

Love your wife and tell her so, and she will work her 
ringers off for you, if need be, and be an honor to you. 




The Bureau of d/rtaritie: 



|Y subject this morning is " How to help the Poor." 
You will find my text in Mark, xiv, 7 : " For 
ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye 
will ye may do them good." The question of how to 
help the poor is opportune at this time. The cold blasts 
of winter are already whistling around the hovels of the 
poor, and the doors of those who are living in comfort 
are beseiged by men, women and children asking alms. 
Again, I have another reason for bringing this subject 
before you to-day. It is being thought upon and talked 
of at the present time by very many in this city. Lawyers 
and business men, and large-hearted, philanthropic wo- 
men, are being consulted on this subject we have taken 
this morning. This is a very proper place to bring this 
question. To help to solve this problem has been a part 
of the work of Jesus. Not only is the guilty soul to be 
led to the Eedeemer, but it is our mission to do good to 
all, as far as we can. As Methodists we ought to live 
up to the rule of our church which says, " It is expected 
of all who continue in these societies that they shall con- 
tinue to evidence their desire of salvation by doing good ; 
by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they 



THE BUREAU OF CHARITIES. 49 

nave opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, 
as far as possible, to all men ; to their bodies of the ability 
which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by 
clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are 
sick or in prison; to their s:mls, by instructing, reproving, 
or exhorting all we have any intercourse with; trampling 
under foot that enthusiastic doctrine, that ' we are not 
to do good unless our hearts be free to it 7 ." 

Jesus started this movement for the poor a good while 
ago, and His true disciples are walking in his footsteps. 
St. James says : " Pure religion and undented before 
God and the Father is this — To visit the fatherless 
and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself un- 
spotted from the world." And in John, 3, 17: "But 
who so hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother 
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion 
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him." 

Christ appears personified in the poor and the sick : 
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye have clone it unto me." 

St. Jane, of Ohantal, the daughter of a princely house 
in France, was wont to give the poor the reverence due 
to sovereigns, for she beheld in them, she declared, the 
King of Kings. May we never permit the divorce of 
charity from christian faith. We shall be more holy and 
more happy if we do more for the poor and suffering 
about us. O'Zanam, the founder of the St. Vincent de 
Paul society, said with his dying breath : " We have 
grown to two thousand visitors in Paris alone, and we 



50 SHOTS PROM THE PULPIT. 

visit there five thousand families." We, too, shall be 
happy, both living and dying, if we go about doing good.. 
We then, of all others, do well to entertain this question 
to-day. 

But you ask, " How shall we help ? " If I attempt to 
aid the poor as many do, I shall be a damage, an abso- 
lute injury to them rather than a blessing. Formerly,, 
when the knight rode out from his castle, he scattered 
money as he went, and the people bowed and worshipped 
the hand that shed down the golden rain. But when 
the giver of the gold had passed, they crept back to their 
wretched huts and lived little better than the beasts of 
the field. This was a very poor way to give charity, but 
do we do any better ? For a few years past the people 
of this city have danced for the support of the poor. A 
grand charity ball has been given and thousands of 
dollars have been gotten from this source. Now, mark 
this : When the dance was over and the money was 
placed in the hands of worthy persons for distribution, . 
the poor — doubtless many of them unworthy of charity — 
crowded in, demanding the money as their right, and 
policemen were necessary to restrain them from violence. 

In many of our cities soup kitchens are started, and 
free lodging houses are opened both by public and private 
means. But the majority of those who have been en- 
gaged in these lines of effort have become very much 
discouraged. Take an example from the city of New 
York when the soup kitchens and free lodgings were in 
full blast. The streets were thronged with the ragged,. 



THE BUREAU OF CHARITIES. 51 

needy crowd. They filled all the station houses and 
lodging places provided by private charity, and over- 
flowed into the Island almshouse. Street begging became 
a custom. Ladies were robbed, even, on their own door- 
steps by these mendicants. Thieving and drunkenness 
increased; nor would these paupers work. On one occa- 
sion the almshouse authorities were discharging a band 
of able-bodied paupers, and having need of some light 
out-door labor on the Island, they offered these men what 
is thought good country wages — fifteen dollars a month 
and board. They unanimously refused, preferring the 
free lodging and lunch of the city. Workingmen came 
from such distances as Boston and Pittsburg, partly, no 
doubt, to "see the sights of New York," but hoping, al- 
so, for aid from public and private charities. We are 
told that, in some cases, youDg men were arrested in 
criminal houses who made their headquarters in these 
soup kitchens, and then sallied out to enjoy the criminal 
indulgences of the city. Poor families abandoned stea- 
dy industry, got their meals at the kitchens, and spent 
the clay in going from one charitable organization to 
another. Thus we might go on, but we need not take 
your time. The ablest philanthropists in our country 
believe that the woodpile ought to be next to the soup 
kitchen, and, better still, the relief houses should be 
under the care of the police. If we would do the poor 
good, we must be careful how we help them. 

I believe we can help the poor through intelligent, or- 
ganized effort. A movement is now on foot in this city 



52 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

which I think will greatly aid us in solving this trouble- 
some problem. This organization is called " The Omaha 
Bureau of Charities." It is not the formation of a new 
society for the dispensing of charity — on the other hand, 
it would aid those already organized — and is really a 
Board of Eecord, where the names of all who are helped 
can be found, and where facts relating to each needy case 
may by obtained. This Bureau of Charities will have a 
president, probably two vice presidents, a secretary and 
a treasurer ; also a paid agent, whose business will be to 
personally investigate the needy cases. Friendly visitors, 
who are willing, will have opportunity to aid in this work. 
The board of directors will probably consist of twenty- 
one well-known business and professional men, who will 
meet monthly and may be consulted oftener. The dif- 
ferent churches and charity organizations will be repre- 
sented in the Bureau, and through the workings of the 
Bureau we can all be saved from imposition and fraud. 

The design of this organization is to weed out the un- 
worthy and help the deserving. By working in this line 
we shall save thousands of dollars which are now worse 
then wasted. You are doubtless familiar with many 
charitable bodies in our city which will be aided by the 
movement I have spoken of. You are not only fami- 
liar, I say, with these organizations, but they commend 
themselves to you and you are aiding them. 

Thirteen years ago the City Mission was organized and 
it is still doing its work on Tenth street. It teaches poor 
women and girls to sew and gives them the garments 
they make. These poor children are taught on the 



THE BUREAU OF CHARITIES. 53 

Sabbath of Jesus and heaven. In this same place the 
bootblacks are given a good breakfast every Sabbath 
morning. 

We are all familiar with the noble work done by the 
Women's Christian Association, at 2718 Burt street. 
Their object is to provide temporary assistance to desti- 
tute women and children until permanent homes and 
means of support can be given them. They have bought 
the house and lot they occupy and have paid $1,500 on 
the same. This society is worthy of our money and 
prayers. 

Then I have been greatly pleased to hear of the work 
of the ladies of Unity club. These ladies, I suppose, do 
not believe that Jesus is divine, but if we Methodists, 
are not diligent the Unitarians will outstrip us in the labor 
of love. This body has opened a day nursery for children, 
where poor mothers can have their children cared for, for 
a small sum while they are away at work. I understand 
that the city has given this club a house and lot for this 
humane purpose. 

A Young Woman's home, under the auspices of the 
Women's Christian Association, has been opened at 1910 
Dodge street. They pay $150 per month for the build- 
ing. This line of work first began in New York and 
Boston in 1866. The object is to labor for the good of 
working women in every way, to find new avenues of 
employment, and to shield them by judicious means from 
imposition and wrong. Prices of board are regulated ac- 
cording to accommodations. All the privileges of a home 
will be furnished at a very low price. More or less will 



54 SHOTS FR03I THE PULPIT. 

be constantly clone in the way of intellectual improve- 
ment. Eeligious privileges will also be enjoyed. In our 
cities these homes have been a blessing to thousands. 

Let us make up our minds to put forth sensible, 
organized, effort, and when we go to visit the poor, even 
on our own account, let us go to find out the causes of 
their distress. These causes, in the main, are idleness, 
intemperance and sickness; and while temporary help 
must be given, these causes should be removed, if pos- 
sible, and we should instill into them ideas of self-respect 
and give to them principles of temperance, health and 
thrift. There is no need of beggary in our American 
cities. Labor is wanted everywhere — especially educated 
labor. " Stagnation is the last station this side of dam- 
nation." 

Let us give our influence and help in the line of the 
education of the poor. Tuckerman says, " Every child 
who is a beggar, almost without exception, will become a 
vagrant and probably a thief." Let the hand and mind 
be taught and we shall lift them up. 

I now speak briefly of the greatest cure. These poor 
people in our city need the faith and religion of Jesus. 
God will hold us responsible, I believe, for neglecting the 
poor of our own city even more than those on the other 
side of the globe. While we act as the agents of these 
efficient organizations in our midst, let us supply the 
wants of the deserving poor and at the same time tell 
them of Him who, " though He was rich, yet for their 
sakes became poor that they, through His poverty, might 
be rich." 



Base Ball on the Sabbath. 



vp^ XODUS. xx, 8: " Remember the Sabbath day to 
^^ keep it holy." Psalms xi, 3: "If the foundations 
Ibe destroyed, what can the righteous do?" 

My subject this morning is "Sunday Base Ball." See, 
first, by the text, the divine authority for the Sabbath. 
This is not a day set apart by man, but ordered by God. 
The ten commandments are the ten foundation stones of 
our holy religion, and the Sabbath is one of these great 
foundation stones. In the very morning of creation 
God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day, and when 
He gave the laws to the race He gave this fourth com- 
mandment, and with His own finger He wrote it on the 
tables of stone. That divine law has never been re- 
pealed. This day commemorates the grandest acts in 
the drama of the world. It celebrates the completed 
work of creation — the deliverance of the Israelites from 
Egypt, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the Pent- 
ecostal baptism. 

Man,has a threefold need of this day. He needs it for 
worship, for rest, and for serious thought. Whatever be 
our faith, we need to ask, " What am I ? Where am 



5G SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

I % Whence came I ? Why am I here ? What have I 
to do 1 How am I doing it ? and whither am I going ? " 

The free thinkei* the infidel, the atheist, needs a Sab- 
bath for the contemplation of a universe without a God, 
and for the answering of questions which meet him at 
every step. 

But God says in this text, " to keep it holy," and He 
repeats this commandment many times in His Word. 
The best and holiest men of state and the church have 
always stood for the defense of this day. 

Look at the picture of Nehemiah, as seen in his thir- 
teenth chapter, and hear his words : " And it came to 
pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark 
before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should 
be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till 
after the Sabbath : and some of my servants set I at the 
gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the 
Sabbath day. So the merchants and sellers of all kinds 
of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. Then 
I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge 
ye about the wall 1 If ye do so again I, will lay hands 
on you. From that day forth came they no more on the 
Sabbath." 

Wilberforce says : "I can truly declare that to me 
the Sabbath has been invaluable." Dr. Merle D'Aubigne 
says : " Amidst the activity which pervades all things, 
what would become of men if they had not a day »f rest, 
in which to look forward to things eternal ? " Matthew 
Hale, the great jurist, says : "As the Sabbath goes with 
me, so goes all the week." 



BASE BALL ON THE SABBATH. 57 

We see, then, that the Sabbath is of divine origin, and 
should be sacredly kept. 

Secondly — The text asks the question — " If the foun- 
dations be destroyed, what can the righteous do ! " 

Now, we believe that the playing of base ball is a 
gross violation of the day. Lately I have been looking 
up the history of base ball, and have informed myself as 
to some facts relating to it, and I would say at the very 
outstart that I am not opposed to base ball on secular 
days ; on the contrary, I believe it to be a healthful and 
manly sport. I do not know what Sam Jones meant 
when he said, " If I had a yellow dog, and he should go 
out to see a game of base ball, I would kill him when he 
came home." I do not see anything wrong in the game 
if played honestly and at proper times. 

We must quit preaching the gospel of " Don't" or give 
our reasons. Base ball is the national game of America. 
Prior to the organization of the base ball players' club, in 
1857, there was no general code of rules; but now the 
game has become a science as well as an art. 

There are five great leagues : The National league, 
the American association, the Northwestern league, the 
Southern league and the Western league. 

The National league plays in eight of our principal 
cities, including New York, Boston and Chicago. This 
is the metropolitan league of the world. 

The American association stands next. At the close 
of the season, which is some time in October, the Na- 
tional league and American association play for the 
championship of the world. 



58 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

These leagues pay good salaries and have drawn men 
from almost all the professions and walks of life. The 
league players get from $1,800 to $3,000 for the six 
months' season. The pitchers and catchers get the best 
salaries. 

The following are some of the noted players of the 
country : Mike Kelly, who cost the Bostons $14,000 this 
year ; Captain Anson, Olarkson, O'Eourke, Carruthers, 
Bushong, and many others of national reputation might 
be named. 

These men have left business, the practice of law and 
medicine, for this game. And for their services they re- 
ceive more money thau they can make in any other way. 

A few years ago, in one of our universities, the best 
scholar went to preaching for $300 and the poorest went 
to playing ball for $3,000 — that was muscle against 
brain. 

The most prominent men of the country go to see the 
games. Judges and legislators deem it a profitable 
pleasure and recreation. 

The National league often draws 14,000 people. At 
Baltimore, the other day, the American association 
played before 20,000 people and put in their purse more 
than $10,000. 

On Decoration day in this country 300,000 spectators 
witnessed this game. 

When you look at "success," the base ball has far 
surpassed the old theaters, even in their palmiest days. 

I am pleased to hear that a man, to be a good player, 



BASE BALL ON THE SABBATH. 50 

must be a good man. He must not reduce his strength 
by vice of any kind, and he must sleep regularly. He 
must not be a gambler or a drunkard. So far I have no 
fault to find. From what I know of it, thus far, I com- 
mend the sport. But in this city and Denver the game 
is played on the Sabbath, and to this I am opposed. 

The lovers of the game in these cities attempt to jus- 
tify it. They say, " why specify Sunday base ball and 
let a score of other Sabbath desecrations go by un- 
noticed ! " The consistent defender of the Sabbath will 
not let other desecrations pass unreproved. Again, they 
say, " young men must have some place to go, and if 
they cannot see a game of ball they will go to the beer 
gardens." But do you really mean to say that ? You 
have said that the people who go to see the Sunday 
games, are the very best of our people, but now you say 
they are the low-down crowd who frequent the Sunday 
beer garden. 

If we must have the Sunday base ball to keep men 
out of a worse place, to what a pass have we come. 

But here is the reason for the Sunday base ball, as 
given by those who advocate it: The Omaha club is in 
debt; they get the largest crowd and make the most 
money on that day ; therefore, they play on the Sabbath. 
They play for the very reason that some church mem- 
bers do business on the Sabbath — the " almighty dollar" 
is back of it all. 

The Omaha association gives every club which plays 
here $65 whether they win or not. The Omaha club gets 



60 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

$2,100 salary every month. The club has played 
twenty-four games during the past two months. On 
week days the proceeds from the game average only 125 
above the guarantee, which for the twenty-four games 
equals $600. In these two months the salaries of the 
players have amounted to $4,200 ; the loss for the two 
months, then, would be $3,600. The loss for the season, 
at this rate, without the Sunday games, would be $10,800. 
It is, then, a question of amusement and money making. 
But is it contended that such motives justify us in break- 
ing the Sabbath ? The fact is that many of the best 
players d® not try to justify the Sunday game. The 
National league will not handle a ball on the Sabbath, 
nor will they permit a man to belong to one of their 
eight clubs who do so. The Manager says : " I would 
prefer not to play on the Sabbath." In his correspond- 
ence, as former manager, he found that many players 
made it a condition that they should not be obliged to 
play on the Sabbath. 

The position, then, that the Omaha association takes, 
is, "We are poor, therefore we must be wicked." If the 
devil has got you down, don't let him put his feet on 
you. 

Mark this. Your objections are easily swept away. 

For my part I would not take away the legitimate 
pleasure of any man. There is enough of sorrow in this 
world ; let us augment the pleasures rather than decrease 
them. Man is the only animal that laughs ; let him do 
so if there is not a sting with the laugh. 



BASE BALL OX THE SABBATH. <>1 

But the Sunday base ball is played iu direct opposition 
to the law of God. See Exodus, xx, 8, " Remember the 
Sabbath day and keep it holy ;" and in Isaiah Iviii, 13, 
He says, we are not to find our pleasure on the Sabbath 
day. 

Agassiz was asked what most impressed him on his 
arrival in this country. He said : " The quiet of an 
American Sabbath." What would the great scientist 
now say if he could look iu upon us on Sabbath ; beer 
gardens all running, traveling circuses in full blast, and 
thousands of people shouting over base ball 1 Would he 
not say "You are breakers of the divine Law ? " 

And this is no light thing to break God's laws. Look 
at the blessings, which He says, rest on those who keep 
His laws, and the curses which desceucl on those who 
break them. See Deuteronomy xxviii. 

Is an hour's pleasure, or the gaining of a few paltry 
dollars, to be compared to the favor of Almighty God ? 

It is a breaking of the laws of our state and city. See 
statutes of Nebraska, chapter xxiii, section 241. "If 
any person of the age of 14 years or upwards shall be 
found on the first day of the week, commonly called Sun- 
day, sporting, rioting, quarreling, hunting, fishing, or 
shooting, he or she shall be fined in a sum not exceeding 
twenty dollars, or be confined in the county jail for a 
term not exceeding twenty clays, or both, at the discre- 
tion of the court." 

It is also against the ordinance of our city. See ordin- 
ance defining " The powers of the council," section xv, 



62 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

paragraph 3. It is within the power of the council " to 
restrain, prohibit and suppress all gaming and desecra- 
tions of the Sabbath." 

Moreover, the Sunday base ball disturbs the worship- 
pers in God's house and the children who are reciting 
their lessons in the Sabbath school, and this of itself is 
110 inconsiderable argument. 

Again, families are disturbed and robbed of their Sab- 
bath quiet and rest, and have even left their homes while 
the game has been in progress. 

The game has been a powerful temptation to boys and 
young men, inducing them to break the Sabbath. Many 
young men from the east, from christian homes, have 
seen the multitude going to the ball grounds and have 
fallen in with them. 

Dr. Wayland says : " Eeligious restraint is fast los- 
ing its hold on that young man who, having been edu- 
cated in the fear of God, begins to spend the Sabbath in 
idleness or amusement." 

The base ball association of this city will be responsi- 
ble for the starting of more than one young man in the 
course of sin. 

Some will ask us, " What is the cure 1 " The evil 
will be cured if men will do their duty. Let the dis- 
trict attorney see to the enforcement of the state law. 
It is his business. Let the city officials see to the en- 
forcement of the city ordinance on this point. And if 
the press will take a stand for the Sabbath it will be a 
power. But when some of our papers publish such 



BASE BALL ON THE SABBATH. 63 

articles as have recently appeared, actually taking sides 
with the Sunday base ball, Sunday beer gardens and 
music, we can hope for little from such sources. 

But we look for the ministers and churches to do much. 
We are responsible for these evils until we have clone our 
best to correct them. 

isTehemiah contended with the nobles of Judah and 
told the Sabbath breakers he would lay hands on them 
if they came again. 

Now it remains for us to speak and to act. 

You sing, " Surely the Captain May Depend on Me," 
but can he ? 

We have a good mayor who is anxious to see these 
*evils abated. 

What will you do to help him f 

,Gocl and good men are watching for your decision. 




^wful Sin of ^Profanity. 



^?HE subject to-night is Profane Swearing. Our text 
^ is taken from James v, 12 : " But above all things, 
my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the 
earth, neither by any other oath : but let your yea be 
yea ; and your nay, nay ; lest ye fall into condemna- 
tion." 

The first man, who swore a profane oath was born a 
good while ago. On opening the oldest book in the 
world we see that they knew something of this baneful 
art. Job's wife told her husband to curse God. It is 
bad enough when a man has an oath in his heart, but it 
is far worse when a woman is profane. Men swear 
in almost every language and in nearly every land under 
the sun, but the English language is the great vehicle of 
profanity. Americans have taught other nations how to 
swear and drink whisky. In our country all classes 
swear. The drunkard lives in an atmosphere of oaths. 
The lost woman curses her associates as they w r alk to 
hell. In our own city you have heard a volley of oaths 
come from a company of little children. They call each 
other the vilest epithets. All about us we are growing 
profane men and women. Business men swear at their 



AWFUL SIN OF PROFANITY. 65 

work. Husbands swear in the presence of wives and 
children. I even heard two reporters of our great dailies 
swear, a few days ago. I have known profane church 
members in this town. When the devil can get a church 
member to swear he is pretty sure of him. Men swear 
everywhere — on the streets, in the home, in the place of 
business, on the train, in secret societies ; on every hand 
men are cursing God and one another. In the name of 
all that is pure and holy, is it not about time to call a 
halt to this awful sin of profanity 1 

I have asked myself the question, and I have asked it 
of others, why do men swear ? And of all the answers 
I have received there is not one valid reason. Men 
swear to give emphasis, but I pity the man whose knowl- 
edge of English is so meager that he must be pro- 
fane in order to be forcible. Some tell us that they swear 
to drive the work along. Some of the mule drivers in 
the army thought the mules would not pull unless they 
were sworn at. I know a man in this town who is very 
profane while about his work; and I am told, the better 
business is, the more fearfully he swears. His curses 
pollute the very neighborhood in which he lives. 

Men swear because the evil habit has fastened upon 
them. A habit is something that has us, and this evil 
fastens itself on men to such a degree that they 
hardly know when they swear. In many cases they 
swear because they have gotten into bad company. Pro- 
fane company will make profane men. " Lie down with 
a dog and you get up with a flea." 



GO SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

But the great reason why men swear is, the devil is in 
their hearts, and when they swear it is only the devil 
speaking out. You can't bribe him to keep still. He 
will talk and he never used a pure language. 

AVe have some arguments against this fearful sin, and 
we would denounce it with every power we possess. All 
good men are opposed to profane swearing. Louis IX, 
of France, punished those who were convicted of swear- 
ing by searing their lips with a hot iron, and when some 
complained that the punishment was too severe, he re- 
plied : U I would to God that by searing my own lips I 
could banish out of my realm all abuse of oaths." 'Ohry- 
sostom was so opposed to swearing, he recommended 
that those who were guilty of the sin should be compelled 
to go without a meal for every oath they swore. 
But I think we could scarcely find anyone, either good 
or bad, advocate the use of profanity. I have never 
heard a man uphold the practice. 

Again, it is absolutely useless. No inducements are 
offered by the devil, or any other person, for swearing. 
The profane man bites a perfectly bare hook. The liar 
tells the falsehood for a purpose. The thief steals to 
satisfy his want. The murderer slays his victim for re- 
venge or for gain; but the swearer swears for nothing. 

" What does Satan pay you for swearing ? " asked one 
man of another. " He don't pay me anything," was the 
reply. " Well, you work cheap to lay aside the charac- 
ter of a gentleman, to inflict so much pain on your friends 
to suffer, and lastly, to risk your own precious soul — and 
for nothing. You certainly do work cheap." 



AWFUL SIX OF PROFANITY. 07 

It is not gentlemanly; no gentleman in England swears; 
no gentleman swears anywhere. The true gentleman is 
such at heart, but he is not profane. It is the one who 
wishes to degrade himself to the very lowest level of 
pollution and shame that swears. It is disgusting to 
the refined and abominable to the good. It is a sin 
against the state. Most civilized states have made 
swearing a crime. In Great Britain profanity is punish- 
able by the civil law. Scotland legislates against swear- 
ing, and Ave may add that in the United States, also, most 
of the state laws make swearing a punishable offense for 
which a fine may be imposed. 

It is a sin against God. One of the first command- 
ments God ever gave to men was : " Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain, for the 
Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in 
vain." And in our text God says, " Swear not." You 
tnow it is sin. You remember how faithfully your pre- 
cious parents warned you against this sin against God. 
You recall how much you were frightened when yen 
swore your first oath, and then how your soul became 
calloused till you hardly knew when you added a new 
oath to your almost countless number. To invoke the 
vengeance of God is, perhaps, the most awful offence in 
the sight of our Father. The text next says the swearer 
falls into condemnation. Swearing leads to other sins; 
it never stands alone. The swearer is usually a liar, 
condemning what God has not condemned. 

" If you should ask me what the cure for this great 



68 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

evil is I would say, "Be a man and stop." Are you 
going to let a habit down you and bold you there and 
damn you at last ? Put your will into exercise and stop 
this stream of profanity. Some men say, " I can't quit 
swearing, and I can't quit drink and tobacco." I say 
that I believe in the sovereignty of the individual, and 
that a man can quit whatever he wants to quit, and 
whenever you want to quit swearing, you can do it. You 
can't make me believe you have lost the ability and 
power to be a man. If there were no God and no future, 
you ought to stop this foul language. 

Begin to 'pray. I never knew a man, who prayed much, 
to swear. The man of prayer reverences the name of 
God. 

Let God cast the devil out of your heart. There was 
a sea captain who swore all the way from New York to 
Havana, and from Havana to San Francisco, and when 
in port he was even worse than when on sea. Conver- 
sion by the power of the Holy Ghost washed his tongue 
clean of profanity. God can do that for you — u Do not 
try to cleanse the stream — run that hog out of the^ 
spring." 



hC^m 



Address to ©del bellows. 



(£Y£)EMBEBS of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows of 
J ** the state of Nebraska : — You come here to-day 
as the representatives of an ancient and most honorable 
body. Your very presence in our city calls up the in- 
teresting facts relating to our origin and marvelous 
prosperity. Our order had its beginning in London, 
England, about 1745. The early laws were crude and 
imperfect, but able and large-hearted men thought and 
planned, and labored, until the foundation stones were 
laid broad and deep. And now the whole world says 
that our fathers builded better than they knew. In the 
year 1814 the lodges in Manchester, England, and vicin- 
ity were consolidated under the title, " The Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows of Manchester Unity." This 
Manchester union soon attained great prosperity and 
organized lodges in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, 
France, Turkey, Africa, North and South America, East 
and West Indies and Australia. Numerous attempts 
were made to establish lodges in the United States, but 
a permanent organization was not effected until about 
1820, when a document was procured from the Manches- 
ter Unity, clothing the American organization with the 
powers of a grand, as well as subordinate lodge, under the 
title of "No. 1, Washington lodge, Grand lodge of Mary- 



70 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

land, and the United States." In 1829, Thomas Wildey r 
the presiding officer of the Grand lodge of the United 
States, visited England and obtained from the Grand 
committee of Manchester Unity, the independent chaiter 
granting to the Grand lodge of the United States 
authority to conduct the business of Odd Fellowship 
without the interference of any other country, "as long 
as the same is administered according to the principles 
and purity of Odd Fellowship." Intimate relations 
between the two bodies continued for several years, but 
differences arose which could not be reconciled, and a final 
separation was effected in 1843. Since the latter date 
our order has had great prosperity in this country. 
We have organized Grand lodges in every state and in 
most of the territories in the United States, Canada, 
Switzerland and Australia. We have now 528,000 
members, and publish more than a score of periodicals. 
In this young state of Nebraska alone we have 5,010 
members, and in this city we have six most prosperous 
lodges. Again, looking into your faces as we do this 
hour, we ask, concerning the great objects of our order: 
Tell me the object of a man or a set of men and we can 
guess their value in the world. 

The objects, of American Odd Fellowship, are to "visit 
the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and edu- 
cate the orphan." We are told that the mission of your 
order is to improve and elevate the character of man, 
and imbue him with proper conceptions of his capabilities 
of good ; enlighten his mind ; enlarge the sphere of his 



ADDRESS TO ODD FELLOWS. 71 

affections, and lead him to a cultivation of the true fra- 
ternal relation designed by the Great Author of his being. 
It is our mission to watch over each other, whether 
within our lodge room or out of it. Not only do we 
aim high, but our past and present history shows that 
we actually accomplish the proudest achievements. 
The Manchester Unity, the largest and most important 
body of Odd Fellowship in Europe, paid for sick and 
funeral benefits in a single decade — 1865-1875 — over 
$15,000,000. Last year in this country our order paid 
$15,400 for the education of orphan children. We gave 
to the widows and their children, $137,000; for the re- 
lief of our sick brethren, $1,378,427; for the burial of 
our dead we expended $353,880. I do not hesitate to 
say, in this or any other presence to-day, that in these 
grandest of objects the Odd Fellows surpass all other 
societies in the world. The history of this, Goodrich 
lodge, No. 144, reads like a chapter from fairy land. It 
was organized on November 9, 1886, by John Evans, of 
this city. It now has one hundred and fifty members and 
is growing rapidly. Our grand master says : u I never 
knew a lodge so young to attempt and accomplish so 
great things." In the name of God let us go on. And 
may the corner stone laid to-day under such favor- 
able auspices, in due time, be followed by the cap stone 
laid with shoutings. And as our kind father gives us 
a commodious and even elegant house, may we all feel 
ourselves under renewed obligations to daily practice 
our splendid motto, " friendship, love and truth." 



"The D\nights of the (scrip." 



|Y text will be found in Luke x, 35: "Take care 
of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, 
when I come again, I will repay thee." 

I preach this evening to the " Commercial Travelers," 
but other people need not settle back in their seats and 
think that there will be nothing for them. A good ser- 
mon is like an old-time shot-gun — it scatters and hits a 
good many birds every time it goes off. 

I have several reasons for preaching this sermon. 
The traveling men have requested me to preach it, and 
I am always glad to preach to men who want to hear. 
I preach to you, also, because you need it. You are not 
saints, but sinners, and all sinners need the gospel. You 
need more sermons than you get. 

Lately, I have been looking up your history. Like 
Dr. Johnson, I should like to know the biography of every 
man I meet. The time was when the dealers went to 
the great cities once or twice a year and bought the goods 
for their trade. Now the plan is entirely changed. The 
great manufacturing firms and the wholesale houses send 
out men in every direction to bid for trade. I am told 
that in 1844, Daniel E. Wolff went to Philadelphia as a 



THE KNIGHTS OF THE GRIP. 73 

salesman for the dry goods house of Dunton, Gemmill 
& Co. As trade was dull, Mr. Wolff suggested that 
some one he sent out among the country merchants to 
drum up trade. " Who will be the drummer ? " asked 
one of the firm. " I will," replied Mr. Wolff. 

He went on the road and solicited trade among the 
merchants of Southern and Central Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey. He carried no samples, but filled orders 
from samples provided by the merchants to whom he 
sold. In 1849 the thought struck Mr. Wolff that if he 
carried samples of his own, he could introduce new goods 
and more of them. He told the house that the samples 
were coming from the wrong end of the line. From that 
time ou, samples were carried. Since the war, especially, 
your numbers have grown till you now are a mighty 
army, amounting to 250,000 strong. The growth of 
trade in this city has been phenomenal in the past ten 
years. For example : Ten years ago Omaha had one 
small jobbing hardware house, which sent out two men. 
Now one firm sends out ten. 

In the spring of 1880 there were not more than three 
salesmen in one of the leading lines making the state. 
Now, in this line there are over twenty, and all other lines 
have increased proportionately. Three hundred travel- 
ing men make their homes in this city, and this city is 
only a sample of other great centers. 

The commercial traveler is, as a rule, a fairly well paid 
man. The average salesman gets $1,200 a year. The 
men who sell to retail dealers get as high as $3,000 or 



74 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

$4,000, while the men who sell to the jobbing trade some- 
times get salaries of from $4,000 to $5,000. Here is an 
incentive to do well. The traveling man should be 
well paid, for he carries great interests and responsibili- 
ties. The traveling salesman ought to be a whole man r 
for he has a man's work to do. The best men are born, 
not made, for it is a natural gift to be a good salesman. 

He should also be a gentleman. A bore would have 
very little success on the road. And he should be a 
gentleman at heart as well as in manners. 

He should be able to read character, and have the 
good sense to let his customers ride a hobby, if they insist 
upon it. If the traveling man can only have one gift, let 
it be common sense, for common sense is the genius of 
humanity. 

He must be honest — a man of his word. He must not 
need watching, for he goes where his employers cannot 
watch him. He ought to be a sober man. The day 
when the commercial man can be a drunkard, and yet 
stand well with his house, is past and past forever. 

He should be a hard worker. If unincumbered, he 
makes three towns a day, and with his trunks he makes 
from one to two. Often, like that woman in the scrip- 
ture, he " rises while it is yet night." 

He has need of genuine pluck ; that is, he should have 
a heavy under jaw and be able to whistle when it rains. 

He is a bright man — a fool has no place on the road. 
He meets and does business with the shrewdest men of 
the land, hence he, himself, must be intelligent. 



THE KNIGHTS OF THE GRIP. 75 

He must make personal friends of his customers, aud 
tliey must come to trust and even implicitly believe what 
lie says. Trickery wins for a day, but old time honesty 
gains in the loug run. 

The wise salesman knows how to rest. He who knows 
not this art will either break down or go crazy. The 
best traveling men are kind-hearted and liberal — ready 
to help the unfortunate and to relieve suffering. Dr. 
Byers, of Ohio, says that the good Samaritan who spoke 
our text was a traveling man. A poor fellow, going to 
Jericho, fell among thieves who beat and robbed him and 
left him for dead, and though a preist and a Levite neg- 
lected him, a Samaritan, who was a commercial traveler, 
put him on his beast and took him to a hotel and said 
to the host, " Take care of him, and whatsoever thou 
spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee." 

In his gifts the traveling man is seldom imposed upon, 
for he is quick to see the genuine. A little boy fell in 
front of a hotel in Lincoln and broke his leg, spilling 
the contents of his market basket. The traveling men 
sent the little unfortunate home in a hack and gave him 
$18.00. In the city of Hastings, not long ago, a com- 
pany of commercial travelers went to church. They 
were given seats in front and were attentive listeners, 
and when the old deacon passed the hat they each put 
in a silver dollar. Before he got through with those 
men that deacon was obliged to take both hands to his 
hat. 

Truth compels me to say, however, that the average 



70 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

commercial traveler is not very religious. He sees a 
good trade more easily than he see the judgment day. 

The man on the road is subject to great temptations. 
For some reasons your temptations are greater than 
those that come to most men. You are bright and have 
money. If a man is a fool, or if he is very poor, he is not 
apt to be a great sinner. 

Again, you are away from home and home influences. 
Temptations to drink and gamble, to swear and lie, and 
to go in company of bad women, come to you on every 
hand. 

Again, many are in the habit of spending the Sabbath 
in the " Sunday towns " to have a good time. Here the 
landlords allow all the freedom that can be permitted in 
any hotel. The most steady of the men go to their homes, 
or to more quiet houses, and thus the worst element is 
left with the young men in the business, and before Mon- 
day morning things come to a pass bad enough. These 
men think they are so far removed from home that what 
they do will never come to light; and the result is that 
traveling men, as a class, get a worse name than they 
really deserve. 

In this sermon I would be recreant to my trust if I did 
not give some words of counsel. 

Be good men. There are hundreds of men among you 
now Avho are good men in the best sense of the word. 
They are Christians and they are not ashamed to let this 
be known. The Hon. Will Oumback, of Indiana, ex- 
lieutenant governor and ex-congressman, is now a com- 



THE KNIGHTS OF, THE GRIP. 77 

mercial traveler. This man is also a candidate for the 
nomination of governor for the state of Indiana. Men 
from your ranks are to-day being put forward for offices 
of honor and trust all over the land, both in church and 
state. God grant that the long list of good men among 
you may be greatly augmented. Good men are the 
wealth of our states. 

Create a sentiment against the rowdyism in the Sun- 
day towns, which is participated in by some of your mem- 
bers. Eowclyism is everywhere below par to-day, and you 
can hiss it down among your men if you will. 

Be reliable and thoroughly honest and you will surpass 
the brilliant man who is reliable only at times. 

Keep busy, for the busy life is a shield against temp- 
tation. Pick up the gold dust of time. Carry a good 
book in your pocket and at odd moments you can store 
your mind with the most useful knowledge. Some of 
the world's best scholars have been the hardest workers 
and the most busy men. 

Do not allow yourselves to be enslaved by the grosser 
sins. There is no need for the traveling man to drink 
to-day. A commercial traveler was once told that he 
would have to drink if he did business with a certain 
man named. " Then," said the salesman, " I will not do 
the business." 

The trade was made ; the traveler w r as asked to drink 
and smoke, and when he refused both, the merchant said : 
" That's right, old boy ; stick to that and you're all right." 
I would to God that every one of the 250,000 traveling 



78 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

men were total abstinence men and advocates of the 
abolition of the liquor traffic. Do not indulge in games 
of chance. Earn what money you have and do not gam- 
ble for it. Do not go with her whose house takes hold 
on hell. This woman will meet you everywhere, but in 
the name of God I warn you to keep your souls pure. 
Give the right hand to every movement which lifts you 
and your fellows up. I like the ring of " The Travelers' 
Protective Association," one of whose aims is to " elevate 
the social and moral character of commercial travelers." 
I am not surprised that this association, at its last annual 
meeting in St. Louis, had 8,607 members in good stand- 
ing. 

Find your way to church on Sabbath morning. You 
may be a stranger in the city where you are, but you will 
find your mother's bible and your mother's God in that 
church. Get all the good you can out of the sermon, 
and offer an earnest prayer to God for your own soul. 

I counsel you above all to give yourself to God ; then 
when you have sold your last bill of goods, and made your 
last trip, you will not be dismayed when the head of the 
great house calls you to your final settlement. 




©omestic Servants. 



/^\UB subject is, " Domestic Servants," and our text 
^"^ will be found in Oolossians, iii, 22 : " Servants, 
obey in all things your masters according to the flesh ; 
not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness 
of heart, fearing God." I have been thinking a good deal 
about you lately, and have been informing myself about 
your work. Your numbers are great enough in this city, 
alone, to make an army. Each of our large hotels em- 
ploy fifty or sixty servants, and most private residences 
have from one to a half dozen. I can see you pass along 
with the implements and dress of your profession. With 
the broom or mop or tray, wearing dust cap, white apron 
or swallow-tail coat. You come into our hotels, res- 
taurants and homes, from every country under the sun 
— America, Africa, Germany, Scandinavia, Bohemia, 
France, Ireland, and many other lands that vie with 
each other in producing the whitest floor, the softest 
bed or the most delightful dish. 

Some of you are endowed with more sense and self- 
control than the people you serve, and more than one of 
you surpass, in appearance and address, the master and 
mistress of the house. I congratulate you, because you 



80 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

belong to the class of hard workers. Many of you get 
up at 4 or 5 o'clock, and your duties are not completed 
until 9 or 10 at night. I look upon you with tenfold 
more respect than I do the idle child of the rich man, or 
the worthless, spider-legged dude. You are of use in the 
world. If you were blotted out, the world's people would 
stretch out their hands and cry for bread. 

I think you have been slighted by the preachers. We 
have carried the gospel to Mary in the parlor, but we 
have not gone to pray with Martha in the kitchen. The 
average preacher will take up his cross and go as far as 
the dining-room — that is, when there is roast chicken 
upon the table — but as to asking the servant about the 
welfare of the immortal soul, it does not come into his 
mind. The idea largely prevails that the master and 
mistress have souls, but the servants have only gizzards. 
When we see this world as God sees it, we shall be as 
as anxious for the salvation of our servants as we are 
now for the people who live on the opposite hemisphere. 

I can see no reason why we should not go into the 
kitchen, and cellar, for tried, tempted and lost souls. 
The only sermons that many of them have are those 
preached by the daily press. 

I ask the servants in this city to listen to what God 
says to them in his text — indeed I would have you study 
the whole third chapter of Oolossians, and you will 
find many a valuable lesson for yourselves. I see that 
with God the word servant is a badge of honor. When 
God speaks to a slave he treats him with the respect due 



DOMESTIC SERVANTS. 81 

a free man. God does not look at a man's dress, or his 
hands, but at his heart. You show me a man or woman 
who does not serve some one, and I will show you an in- 
dividual of the smallest possible account in the world. 
Do not be ashamed of your place. Jesus calls himself 
by the very name he calls you. Matt, xx, 27 : "And 
whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your 
servant." When shall we come to believe that no legiti- 
mate work is dishonorable ? I may wear a white necktie, 
and stand in the pulpit ; you may wear a white apron 
and stand in the kitchen, and you may be as honorable, 
as good and pure as I. The place does not make the man, 
but the man the place. Lift up your heads and thank 
God that the term servant may be worn as a badge of 
honor. 

See in this text again, that God expects great things 
of you. He takes it for granted that you will be his 
servant. Hear his word : " Ye serve the Lord Christ." 
Now I ask you, don't you think some of you are a long- 
way off from being God's servants f A good many of 
you are as fine servants as the devil has. How you have 
worked for that old scamp. He has come to you day and 
night in kitchen, pantry, and bedroom, asking you to do 
the meanest things — and you have done them. Don't 
you remember ? 

Well, if you serve the devil, you are his servant — 
Eomans vi, 16 : "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield 
yourselves servants to obey ; his servants ye are to whom 
ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto 
righteousness." 



82 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

To whom have you yielded yourselves ? Your lives 
tell whom you serve. 

The servaut who serves God, and the one who serves 
the devil, are known as surely as though the name of 
their master were painted on their backs in large letters. 
I repeat it, many of you are serving the devil ; you are 
disappointing God. Let me prove this. Many of you 
work well when you are watched. That is what God 
calls eye-service and being men-pleasers. In other words, 
you are unreliable. When the devil gets into a servant's 
heart, he makes him untrustworthy. But if God has his 
dwelling place withiu, you can trust him anywhere. 

Many a woman in this city says, "I have one of the 
best girls you ever saw — when I am watching her." I 
have a dog that has to he watched all the time or he goes 
off to visit the neighbor dogs. He is well bred and good 
looking : but all that goes for nothing ; he has to be 
watched, and that makes him of no account. 

Again, many of you waste your money. You girls get 
$15 or $20 a month, if you are in a hotel, and $12 or 
$15, if in a private family. Beside this, you get your 
board and room. Your actual expenses are very small. 
The men get from $20 to $125, according to the service 
rendered ; but only a very few save money. 

I know cooks in this city who get $100 a month and 
they "throw the money at the birds." Do you know 
this very thing tells the master you serve 1 A Christian 
saves his money and puts it to good uses, while the sin- 
ner uses it to help him on in badness. The old folks at 



DOMESTIC SERVANTS. 83 

home need some of it, and you will, after awhile, long for 
many a dollar you are now throwing away. 

Then, too, where there are many of you together, you 
quarrel. You can get up the biggest fights over the 
smallest matters, and the result is the steward of the 
hotel hands you over your valise and shows you the door. 

Moreover, hundreds of you in this city, after your day's 
work is done in summer, go to the beer gardens ; but 
now, in this winter season, you go, after 9 o'clock, to dance 
houses. You dance with rough, bad men you never saw 
before. That dance, for many of you, is the dance of 
death. That dance induced you to buy clothing you 
could not afford and which you did not need ; it robbed 
you of your rest, and it was the occasion of your falling 
into sins I cannot name here. The servant who lies 
down to rest, in her room, is far better off than one who 
walks the streets late at night, or is a party in the public 
dance. 

Some swear and drink. 

The colored waiters have one sin they are especially 
addicted to — " crap shooting or dice throwing/' They 
follow this thing month after month. 

In my next sermon I shall tell where some of the blame 
for these sins lie. But this is true : if you want to keep 
a good name and a spotless character you can do it. 
You may run the fiery gauntlet of temptation. You may 
be called of God to knock a tooth or two down the throat 
of some lecherous whelp, but I repeat it, you can remain 
good. Into every new crowd you go you will be tried, and 



84 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

good men, aud devils will watch the result. You can 
come off more than conqueror. Bemember, this old 
world takes off its hat to goodness. 

Looking into the text again you can see your duty 
outlined. Be obedient. Do the bidding of the mistress 
as you do the will of your Father in heaven. Do your 
work well. Be faithful, truthful and thoroughly trusty. 
If you are these you will have steady work, good pay, 
and a good home. Be in earnest in your work. God 
calls it doing it "heartily." Be religious. Bead the 
testament your mother gave you and kneel down and 
pray. The Lord will hear you, and if you are lonely He 
will be company for you ; and if you are sad He will com- 
fort and sustain you. What we need now is more ser- 
vants who fear God— then they can be trusted ; then 
they will stand. In this very chapter God talks of the 
rewards of those who serve Christ. You will feel happy 
every day, because you are doing right. And in all your 
doings God will help you. God helps those who honor 
him. Heaven will be yours hereafter. Many of us here 
must fill lowly places, but God will give us the choicest 
things of heaven if we will but walk before Him with a 
pure heart. 




The ©angers of ©emestics. 



T T@)E address this sermon to " Employers of Domestic 
^^ Servants," and we take our text from Collossians, 
iv, 1 : " Masters, give unto your servants that which is 
just and equal; knowing that ye also have a master in 
heaven." God here speaks in behalf of the lowly and 
needy. He speaks for those who cannot speak for them- 
selves. He said his mission to earth was to heal broken 
hearts and to open prison doors. And we know he has 
a great field even in our midst. God speaks these words 
to you. People are so liberal of the gospel. They give 
it all away. Let every person here who has a servant, 
weigh these words of the Great Teacher well. Gocl looks 
down on this city to-night, and can see that the servants 
are mistreated and wronged. 

The most of our servants come from across the water, 
and when they land at Castle Garden their trouble be- 
gins. Many a runner, and agent, at this gateway for 
strangers, will have to account for the wrongs done to the 
ignorant and helpless. Remember, God keeps a record. 

Again, they are made to feel that they are servants in 
your homes. That idea is forced upon them at every 
turn. They are made to know what a stinging thing it 



86 SHOTS PROM THE PULPIT. 

is to be poor and utterly dependent. The mistress of the 
house has her place, and the servant has her proper place, 
but the difference of position gives no one the right to 
enslave the human soul. It is our mission here to help 
and lift up, rather than to sadden and degrade. 

Some are made to do unnecessary work. Many feel 
that the servant girl must work fifteen hours a day, 
seven days in a week, or she will not earn the paltry sum 
she gets. When she finishes the long round of daily 
work she is told " to wash the doors or the windows," or 
something of that sort, though the work is not needed. 

A weakly girl said to one of our ladies, the other day: 
" I want to come to your house to rest." Take it to 
yourself. How would you enjoy life if it were one eternal 
grind. Your work would be done better if your servant 
had an hour or two to rest every day. 

Others have poor and insufficient food. The servants 
wait till the second table, but often the first table eats up 
all the food. I know of one family in this town who cannot 
keep servants from this one fact, that they wont give them 
enough to eat. And these are folks who put on lots of 
style, too. It seems to me, if I were a brass- collared 
dog, I would try to carry it out in better shape than that. 
Many a poor girl in this town has been cheated out of 
her pay — cheated out of money she earned over a cook 
stove and a wash tub. A man who will cheat his wash- 
erwoman, or his servants, is getting pretty low. But 
this is a thing which many society and church people do 
in this city. If some of you are surprised that church 



THE DANGERS OF DOMESTICS. 87 

members should do such a thing as this, I would say that 
the man who only makes a profession of religion will do 
as mean things as the devil wants him to. 

Again, as the servant's work is now arranged, in many 
cases she has no time to go to worship God. The ma- 
jority of the servant girls have no Sabbath. The peo- 
ple whom they serve sleep late on Sabbath morning, so 
that they are of neccessity late in beginning their work. 
And the Sunday dinner is the affair of the week. Hun- 
dreds of girls in our hotels and private houses never go 
to church, and many cannot go. The employers go in 
some cases, and are apparently very devout, but a piety 
which will allow its possessor to sleep so late that the 
servant is kept from the house of prayer, is of precious 
little worth. 

And last, but not least, the servant often has her good 
name and character taken from her by her employer. If 
you doubt what I say on this point, come to me and I 
will prove it to you. God knows it is true, and so do 
you know it. Some of you know that it has gotten out 
among the neighbors that the reason your wife has to 
change girls so often is that her husband is such a low 
bred cur. The servants won't stay in the house with 
you. 

Not very far from this church is a beautiful residence. 
For a few weeks within the past year, a trusty servant 
girl had charge of the house, and a man had charge of 
the grounds and the stables. This man offered one in- 
sult after another, till she finally told her employer, and 



88 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

he said to her, as lie handed her a pistol : " Blow the top 
of his head off." The man in the stable had nothing- 
more to say. 

I would to God it were only stable men I had to charge 
with the moral ruin of poor servant girls. Let me give 
you a typical case of the way this deviltry is carried on 
in many homes. A most respectable and excellent ser- 
vant girl unites with one of the city churches. She is 
employed in a home of wealth and so-called refinement. 
The occupants of that home have a place and a name in 
the church of Jesus. They are highly respected people. 
The girl attends the services faithfully, but seems to 
get no rest of heart. Two years have passed since she 
united with God's people. She can stand it no longer. 
She tells her pastor that for two years she has been com- 
pelled to be the mistress of her employer, and asks in 
the name of God what she shall do ! He tells her to 
bring her trunk to his house and he will find her a good 
place. This minister takes her to a place which he be- 
lieves to be above reproach. The owner of that home 
stands well in society and the church. At the end of 
two years that servant girl is sent to Chicago to give 
birth to his child. And do you know that this awful 
wickedness is going on all through our society and our 
churches ? I know now what Josh Billings meant when 



'&■ 



he said, " The more business I have to do with men, the 
better opinion I have of dogs." 

These two reasons are given for the moral ruin of ser- 
vants : They are dependent and they are ignorant. But 



THE DANGERS OF DOMESTICS. 89 

I add a third, and it is the supreme reason : the awful 
depravity of the employers. 

Looking again into the text, we see plainly the way 
they should be treated. "Masters, give unto your ser- 
vants that which is just and equal." That means hu- 
mane, honest, Christian treatment, and God expects this 
at our hands. We should look upon our servants as 
our equals before God, however unequal they may be in 
education and intelligence. We should treat them as 
having immortal souls, and as those who will stand at 
the judgment with us. And to bring this about let the 
preachers and churches speak out. In the name of God 
is this state of things right or wrong ? If it is right, let us 
applaud it, but if it is wrong, let us cry loud and spare 
not. Many a soul is going clown to hell, and the preach- 
ers are as still as the grave as to the real causes. They 
tell us, u The people are refined and delicate on those 
points, we cannot touch upon them." Let men stop 
these sins and I will shut my mouth, but not till then. 
The devil just laughs when a preacher takes up some old, 
dead issue, but when he strikes at the living, awful sins, 
he is frightened. 

Then, too, your homes must be converted. God says 
to-day, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." 
And this invitation is addressed to the man of the house. 
This world will go to hell if the men are not saved. Only 
pure religion, bestowed by Jesus, can root out this 
supreme selfishness in the sinful heart. God send us a 
mighty revival in our churches. 



90 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

In conclusion, this text tells us the reason which God 
gave for treating the servants well. " Ye have a master 
in heaven." The recording angel has been writing. You 
will stand before the Judge, and the poor servant you 
have cheated or degraded will stand by your side, and 
with infinite shame and remorse, you will hear the aw- 
ful word " Depart," and you will take your way to the 
regions of the "damned." In the name of Jesus I ask 
you to turn your back on sin, and set your face as a flint 
toward heaven. 




Spread of Salvation. 



FSALMS lxviii, 31: "Princes shall come out of 
Egypt ; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands 
unto God." 

Our subject this morning is " Missions." Looking into 
this word of God we see the great need of the nations 
for the gospel. See what figures the text uses to bring 
out this thought — Princes from Egypt are on the march to 
Calvary. Ethiopia is pictured as a woman holding out her 
hands to God. In describing the state of the heathen, 
God says, " They are rilled with all unrighteousness, 
fornication, wickedness ; and full of envy, murder, debate, 
deceit, malignity, whispers." And if you will look at the 
first chapter of Eomans you will find that the catalogue 
is not yet complete. Those living in Christian lands out 
of God have great needs ; but they live in the light of 
bible truth. Once separate them from Christian sur- 
roundings and you have Ingersollville, the city that 
Chaplain McCabe dreamed of. In heathen lands men 
are literally living in the habitations of cruelty. Their 
languages are rich in words of crime with no word for 
mercy. The Be v. Sylvanus Whitehead, for ten years a 
missionary in South China, says : " In China you find 



92 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

heathenism of the most ancient, and the most gigantic, 
and the most impious type. It would almost seem as 
though God had isolated the Chinese Empire from the 
rest of the race just to see whether human nature has in 
it any recuperative power ; whether man left to himself 
can devise any system, social, political or moral, that 
shall he sufficient to depose vice, to exalt virtue and to 
promote happiness. And certainly they have not heen 
wanting in expedients. They have had their great nation- 
al system in operation for more than twenty centuries. 
These systems are Confucianism, Taoism aud Buddahism. 
These three systems form the three angles of a triangle — 
the moral, the metaphysical and the immortal. They ap- 
peal to the three great functions of the soul — the will, 
the sensibility and the intellect — and they unite in ignor- 
ing God. They have had a wide field, length of days, 
freedom from outside interference — what is the result ? 
It is an empire more corrupt and degraded than has ever 
been found. The nation has gone down into deeper 
darkness and fouler immorality. The lesson is that man- 
made systems will never succeed in regenerating human 
nature and raising the race. 

Dr. Stephen Olin, one of the greatest preachers of 
Methodism, saw this procession of heathen marching by 
in solid columns, centuries long filled with more than 
half of the human race plunging on in the darkness, and 
he exclaimed : "They perish, sir. They perish !" 

See, in the second place in this text, the willingness of 
the natives to receive the Gospel. Ethiopia stretches out 



SPREAD OF SALVATION. 93 

her own hands to God. The open doors indeed are many 
to-day. The nations of Europe are filling our States 
with souls hungry for the Bread of Life. One of the best 
mission fields in the world is our own Sunny South, with 
millions of poor whites and blacks ready to be taught. 

Looking at the foreign fields, the opportunities are 
wonderful. Bishop William Taylor has charge of our 
work in Africa. Bishop Taylor is there presiding over 
the Conferences, traveling through that land, establish- 
ing Mission stations, himself the grandest worker in the 
field. 

On April 1, 1887, William Taylor called for fifty con- 
secrated Missionaries to leave ISTew York, October 1. He 
says : " I have arranged for opening a dozen industrial 
schools and Mission stations on the west coast of Africa, 
among raw, heathen tribes, and may start on another tour 
to-morrow." He is working among the Bush people, 
who have never lived within the radius of civilized life. 
The stations are located in a most fertile country, five of 
them on the high banks of a beautiful river whose waters 
no steamer ever ploughed. 

Surely Ethiopia is stretching out her hands to God. 
The same may be said of South America, of India, and 
many other lands. There is a great willingness to re- 
ceive the Gospel. 

Again, looking into this text, we see that the ultimate 
success of Missions is assured. A great thinker has 
said : " The success of Missions is the marvel of history." 

In 1800 there were only seven Protestant Foreign 



94 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Missionary societies; in 1887 there are seventy. In 
1800, 170 ordained Missionaries, now about 7,000, direct- 
ing 45,000 helpers, working in 20,000 stations. In 1800 
there were 50,000 converts, now over 1,000,000, with 
3,500,000 adherents. In the last thirty-seven years, 
more Missionary work has been done than in the pre- 
vious five hundred years. In the Figi Islands, fifty years 
ago, the inhabitants feasted on human flesh. 

To-day, out of a population of 120,000, 102,000 go to 
church and 25,000 are communicants. In 1800 in the 
Friendly Islands there was not a Christian. To-day 
there are 8,000 communicants and 20,000 worshippers. 
A century ago Polynesia, with its 12,000 islands, was 
heathen to the last degree ; to-day it is nearly Chris- 
tianized. It took 1,500 years to secure 100,000,000 
Christians, and it took three hundred years to double 
the number, making 200,000,000 in 1800 ; but in 1876 
the number had gone up to 687,000,000. 

Let us now look at the Word to see how the gospel is 
to be taken to those who are reaching out their hands 
for it. If you read the last chapter of Matthew you will 
find our marching orders. They are : " Go ye unto all 
the world and preach the grospel to every creature, and 
lo ! I am with you alway." The desire to give light to 
others is God-given. The Abbe Sicarcl, speaking of his 
celebrated pupil, Massien, relates that immediately after 
his conversion he said : " Let me go to my father, to my 
mother, to my brothers, to tell them there is a God. 
They know it not." 



SPREAD OF SALVATION. 95 

God says : " Freely ye have received, freely give." 

We have something worth having and something worth 
giving, but we have never given worthy of the cause. 
God asks our hearts, our prayers, our money. England 
pays $6,000,000 for Missions, but she pays $750,000,000 
for rum. The United States pays $3,000,000 for Mis- 
sions and $600,000,000 for rum. 

The Methodist Episcopal church expects to give, this 
year, $1,000,000 for Missions from collections only. She 
has never yet given that sum. A tenth of the eggs in the 
country would pay the million dollars. The Seward 
street church is assessed $150 as her part of the million. 
We have three hundred and fifty members and we ought 
to average a dollar apiece. 

I know two men who will give twenty each. How 
much shall we give to God for this noblest of causes ? 




loafers. 



\» 



(•^E take for our text to-night II Thess. iii, 11 



" For we hear that there are some which walk 
among you disorderly, working not at all." 

My subject this evening is " Idleness," and I will ad- 
dress this sermon to " The loafers." 

In this text see God's definition of the loafer. God 
says he is the man who does not work at all. Webster 
says, "A loafer is an idle man." Whether a man is worth 
one hundred thousand dollars or only five cents, makes 
no difference, if he is an idle man, he is a loafer. God 
looks to see if a man works, and he rates him accord- 
ingly. The amount of money he may chance to have 
does not figure. 

In this country the loafers are of both sexes and of all 
ages. 

There are women in this town by the score who are 
genuine loafers, and there is plenty of housework to do. 
The women cannot say, "We have no work to do." The 
washing is to be done on Monday, the ironing on Tues- 
day, and so on through the week. 

A man may, some times, get out of work, but a woman, 
never. If you should ask me what this class of women 



LOAFERS. 07 

do whom I am describing, I should say they are busy 
keeping their hands white and preserving a delicate com- 
plexion, and they kill some time lying on the sofa lead- 
ing a yellow covered novel. In plain English, " They 
loaf for a business." 

The worst visitation of divine providence which God 
can ever send on a man is one of these creatures for a 
wife. We turn into Episcopalians long enough to say, 
" Good Lord deliver us ! " 

No man can thoroughly respect an idle woman. God 
made the woman to be a help-meet for the man, and if 
she does not help father, brother, or husband, she will very 
likely come to be despised. While she lives the idle wo- 
man is utterly worthless, and when she dies no one 
really mourns. 

I can give you one sign by which you can know a lazy 
woman — very often she carries a clog. The other day a 
woman passed along in a stylish turn-out with a colored 
man as coachman, her child sprawling on the floor of the 
carriage, but she held a dog in her arms. 

God's woman is not an idler, but a tireless worker. 
If she lived west of Omaha, she would be called a "rust- 
ler." The 31st of Proverbs defines a woman praised by 
her husband and blest of her children. 

But the men take up their cross and do their full share 
of the loafing. If any man wants work in this town he 
can get it. I have never seen the time, for the past five 
years, in this city, that I could not get half a dozen kinds 
of work to do. 



98 SHOTS FE03I THE PULPIT. 

If a man can throw dirt with a shovel, lie can get 
81.75 a day. If he can handle a hammer and plane, he 
can get $3.00, and if he knows how to use a trowel and 
lay brick, he can make $5.00 ; if he knows how to hold a 
plough and hoe corn, the broad fertile fields of Nebraska 
say to him, " Here's your chance." 

If any man to-day knows how to work and has a will 
to do it, he can do well in this city. 

Every man ought to labor and to save. I know a man 
who has been in the Methodist ministry ten years and he 
has saved something every year. If he can do that in 
the ministry, you ought to do well in any calling under 
the sun. 

There is no excuse for idleness in Omaha, yet many 
idle men are found on our streets. 

There are 1,200 vagrants or tramps arrested every 
year. Make a visit to the empty box cars and buildings, 
and to the parks at this season of the year, and you could 
haul the loafers in by the wagon load. Think of it! 
Minnesota and Dakota can not get men enough to save 
the fields of dead ripe wheat, yet the number of loafers 
does not decrease. 

Some men start from Xew York City and tramp across 
to San Francisco. Some "catch a ride" around the 
world. They take the same trip that Captain Cook did, 
only they travel on " cheek." 

These men "tramp" because they do not want to work. 
They were born tired. They are loafers of the first class. 
They are waiting to find a country where they will not 



LOAFERS. 90 

Lave to work, and I have to tell them that they are walk- 
ing the wrong direction. I do not believe there is a spot 
in God's universe for idlers. 

Idleness keeps a man away from God. A lazy man 
may be a professor of religion, but he cannot be truly re- 
ligious. If a loafer should, by some chance, get religion 
he would lose it within three days, for God would say to 
him : " Whatsoever thy hand fmdeth to do, do it with 
thy might," and the lazy lout would flare up and quit 
the service on the spot. I never ask a loafer to be a 
Christian for that would be asking him to attempt the 
impossible. Before God answered the prayer of Fred 
Douglas for liberty, the dust of southern roads rose in 
answer to that prayer. 

Idleness is the cause of wretchedness. But there is no 
joy like that which comes from hard work. We can not 
be happy, or even content, unless we are doing our best 
— and our best must continually grow better. 

When Charles Lamb was set free from work in the In- 
dia office to which he had been chained for years, he wrote 
to a friend : "I would not go back to my prison for ten 
long years for ten thousand pounds. I am as free as air. 
I shall live another fifty years." Two years had passed 
and Lamb's feelings had changed entirely. He had found 
that " leisure" was a pleasant garment to look at, but a 
bad one to wear. He wrote to the same friend : " No 
work is worse than overwork ; the mind preys upon it- 
self. I have ceased to care for almost anything." You 
will find contentment and happiness in work. 



100 SHOTS FKOM THE PULPIT. 

Idleness produces poverty. I have yet to see a rich 
tramp. God himself says : " He that will not plough 
hy reason of the cold shall beg in harvest and have 
nothing." " From nothing, nothing comes." " Do noth- 
ing " and you " have nothing." Idleness is a cause of 
crime. Victor Hugo says, " Idleness is a mother ; she 
has a son, Bobbery, and a daughter, Hunger." But all 
idlers are not criminals, some do good. The other day a 
box-car got loose and went flying before the wind. 
When it got under full headway a miserable old tramp 
within waked up, climbed on top, and set the brake 
just in time to save a wreck. 

In the context the cure is mentioned. God's cure 
reaches out in three directions, and God's remedies are 
effectual. If the loafer had any idea of the "fitness of 
things " he would pray for death, but he has no such idea 
evidently, else he would not be a loafer. God's great 
remedy is to starve the loafer. " If any man will not 
work neither shall he eat," say the scriptures. But the 
all-powerful remedy is to have the idler made new by the 
power of God. God can help you. 

In conclusion I would say, go to work immediately. 
If you expect to gain a place among men you must work. 
Charlotte Cushman said : " Men call it genius, but I 
tell you it is nothing but sweat." Abraham Van Nest 
was a harness maker in JSTew York. Through industry, 
economy and skill he made a fortune. Henry Clay was 
the " mill-boy of the slashes." Hugh Miller was a stone 
cutter. Columbus was a weaver. Halley was a soap 



LOAFERS. 101 

boiler. Arkwright was a barber. The learned Bloom- 
field was a shoemaker. Hogarth was an engraver. 
Horace Greeley was a printer and started life in New 
York with $10.70 in his pocket. 

Yon may have lost time, but you may also buy it back. 
When Napoleon went on the field of Marengo it was late 
in the afternoon, and he saw that the battle was really 
lost, but looking at the western sun, he said, " There is 
just time to recover the day," and gave his orders with 
characteristic energy and thus turned defeat into victory*. 
So I say to you, if you bestir yourselves, there is just 
time to recover the day. Avail yourself of every oppor- 
tunity lest your life end in disgraceful failure. Don't 
live in hope, with your arms folded. Fortune smiles on 
those who roll up their sleeves. 

Do not despair, even if you are old. Joshua was eighty 
before he went to his life work. And, doing your duty 
as an honest worker, you can look up to God and say 
" Oh, Lord, my heavenly Father, I come to Thee, that I 
may obtain forgivness of my sins through the precious 
blood of Jesus, and now I bow at His feet and accept 
Him as my Savior. Amen." 




(arocer and his Customers. 



PEEAOH to-night to the " Grocer and his Custom- 
ers," and take my text from Proverbs xi, 1: "A 
false balance is abomination to the Lord ; but a just 
weight is His delight," and from Exodus xx, 15 : " Thou 
shalt not steal." For the past live years I have watched 
the business interests of this city. I have been pleased 
to see the small frame building give place to the immense 
brick or stone structure. Standing as I do, a little out- 
side of the business whirl, 1 have been well able to see the 
marked progress in the different lines of trade. There is 
one class of business men of whom I have thought much 
— it is the grocers, and I will tell you why. I thought, 
when I was a little boy, that if I ever grew to be a man I 
would keep a grocery, so I could have all the licorice I 
wanted. Didn't I make a narrow escape f Then I have 
become acquainted with some of your temptations and 
troubles, and on this account I have thought of you. 
You enter a field in which there is the sharpest compe- 
tition. Your patience is tried to its limit. Every day 
you must deal with a crowd of unreasonable if not dis- 
honest people. As I have seen you taking orders and 
delivering goods when the Nebraska blizzard was at its 



GROCER AND HIS CUSTOMERS. 103 

height, or as I have seen yon wading around at work in 
the Omaha mud, I have prayed for you that you might 
have an old-time case of genuine religion — " you need it 
in your business." I believe we shall see, before we get 
through with this sermon, that everybody who goes into 
a grocery needs religion, and having it, he ought to apply 
it. Eeligion is a worthless commodity unless it is applied. 
Eeligion looks well on dress parade, but it is of more 
value actually put into practice. It is not a silk dress 
for the parlor — it is a plain calico for everyday wear. 
The religion of Jesus is the principle we so much need in 
trade to-day. 

I speak first of the sins of the grocer. There are two 
classes of men in this line to-day in Omaha. The hon- 
est man — some of these have been here for twenty years. 
Go into their establishments. Forty men are doing up 
packages and delivering goods. It requires fourteen 
horses to draw their delivery wagons. You would trust 
the heads of many of these firms with the last dollar you 
had, for they are honest men. But there is another sort 
of men in the business — men who have to be watched. 
Some of them profess religion, but the profession of re- 
ligion will never make an honest grocer. I am told that 
one of these men shouted down to his clerk the other 
day : " John, have you sanded the sugar?" " Yes," says 
John. "All right. Come up to prayers." While I go 
on in this sermon you can place yourself in the class to 
which you belong — the honest or the dishonest. This is 
the way we shall do at the judgment, and we might as 



104 SHOTS FR03I THE PULPIT. 

well begin now. Some of you are dishonest. You have 
a way of fixing up your scales so that the machine works 
in your favor. The scale inspector said to one of your 
number lately: "If I find your scales again in the con- 
dition they are to-day I will make you trouble." You 
may call this sharp practice, doctoring scales in that way, 
but I call it a dishonest act. 

Again, take this fact to demonstrate the same truth. 
A wealthy man comes into your store. He trusts you. 
He says: "Send me up so many pounds of this, and of 
this, and of this." You do so. He comes in every day 
during the month and gives you his order as to the 
amount, but does not ask you the price. At the end of 
the month, when you make out the man's bill, you make 
him pay more for tea and sugar than you do his neigh- 
bor. You call it "sizing him up according to his pile." 
A retired grocer who once kept a store here, said: 
"Brother Saviclge, you can't make anything in groceries 
in this town, unless you work your pencil on them." 
Now, I know that many an honest merchant in this city 
will say that this is never clone. Well, I reply, that it 
has been done in our city, and done many times. Take 
another case of dishonesty. You advertise, for example,, 
to sell thirteen pounds of sugar for a dollar, aud you tell 
your clerks to put twelve pounds in those dollar-pack- 
ages. You not only tell a lie but you make your clerks 
act a lie all day long. There has been more than one 
case of this kind in the city within the past five years. 

To prove my first point, I will tell you an instance 



GROCER AND HIS CUSTOMERS. 105 

that came to me from an eye witness. A grocery firm, 
in this city, bought two car-loads of cider from one of the 
apple growing states east of us. They then sold all this 
cider out, with the exception of five barrels. This done, 
they divided the contents of the five, putting a little 
cider into each empty barrel, and then filled the whole 
number up with water. Then they wrote the firm, of 
which they had purchased, saying the cider was only a 
little better than water and to send their agent out to 
inspect it. The agent came and paid them back their 
purchase money. 

Again, some of you are profane, and I can tell you 
why some of you swear. People promise to pay, and 
when the first days of the month come, the money does 
not come. I know one man in this city who makes the 
air fairly blue with smoke because the people won't pay 
up, and the next month he trusts them over again and, 
when the time comes, he swears again. 

I should think you would see the uselessness of that 
bad habit as well as the sinfulness of it. 

Again, a good many of you keep open on the Sabbath. 
Some of you say "This is my best day." You not only 
work yourself, but you compel your clerks to work. 
Only think of it! The work is hard enough and the 
hours long enough at best. In summer, on Saturday, 
for instance, the clerk goes to the store at 5:30 in the 
morning and works until 11 at night. What do you 
think of that greedy soul who asks him to come back 
on Sabbath % 



106 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

A member of the Catholic church in the grocery trade, 
and by the way, one of your most prosperous men, said 
to me, that when he first began here, he kept open on 
Sabbath but six months of Sabbath-breaking was 
enough for him. My advice is, let the sinners pound 
away on your doors; you keep God's day. If you fail, 
fail an honest man and a sincere Christian. 

In the second place, I speak of the sins of the cus- 
tomers; they are not thoughtful and considerate of man 
and beast. 

Business in this line is done largely with pass books. 
Do you know that one firm, whose accounts are written 
on fifty pass books, only has five books brought regular- 
ly to their store! Forty-five careless families are doing 
business with that one house. Take this point to prove 
my position. These grocers take orders and deliver 
goods at South Omaha, and as far as the deaf and dumb 
institute. If you would only take in your orders early, 
how much you could save man and horse. Instead of 
that, some of you go with your orders at an hour when 
the men should be at their homes. If some of these 
poor, tired, clerks were preaching to-night they could tell 
some facts that would prove this point. 

One grocer was asked the other day to take a custom- 
er two miles distant from his store. The family con- 
sisted of two persons and he was expected to attend to 
their wants daily. This same man is asked to do all 
sorts of favors for his customers. The other day he 
was asked to deliver a sewing-machine. He sent two of 



GROCER AND HIS CUSTOMERS. 107 

his men to do the work. They broke the machine and 
the owner made the grocer pay for the privilege of 
doing him that favor. He told his men that they would 
go out of the sewing machine business. 

The clerks in one of the stores said to a certain 
woman: "Isn't she a perfect lady? She treats the clerks 
as well as she does the proprietor. 

Let us carry home the small parcels and by every 
means make it more easy for over-worked men to live. 
If the christain people would, they could save the 
grocer well nigh one-half of his labor. 

Again, the customer tells a lie to his grocer. Instead 
of paying up as he promised, large unpaid balances are 
against him. Some are "being carried" for $200. One 
merchant says : "In the past ten years I have lost $10, 
000 from these unpaid balances. They are the curse 
of the trade." The grocer has to pay cash for all his 
produce, and in thirty days he must meet most of his 
other bills. He pays interest but he does not get inter- 
est from you. 

A good many of us have been asking, in this revival 
season, how we may have the Holy Ghost with us in 
power. He will dwell with us when we do right. 

Again, some of 3^ou steal from the grocer. Did you 
ever know that the merchant must display a certain 
class of goods in order to sell them ? And did you ever 
think that the loss on this class of goods, in stock, is two 
per cent., just from " pickings ! " Let us quit this so- 
called respectable pilfering. 



108 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Then some of you steal in another way. You owe 
the merchant for your living for two months. Then you 
go to another store, or move to another state. And this 
is true, the people who do this are very extravagant in 
their buying. The people who don't pay live on the fat 
of the land. Stay by the man who accommodates you 
and pay him every dollar. 

In conclusion I am told that professed Christians are 
no better than sinners in these things. But the real 
Christian is a reliable, square man every time. 

JLet us have a revival of the commandments, and then 
a revival of Holy Ghost religion will follow. 




3/Cercy for 3/Cagdatenes, 



^TOHN viii, 11: And Jesus said unto her: " Neither 
^ do I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more." 

My subject this evening is "Lost Women." It is 
very possible that some people in this congregation will 
be shocked before this sermon closes. But I give you 
fair warning that I shall talk plainly, and if you cannot 
stand plain talk you had better withdraw now. I must 
confess that during my residence in this city I have seen 
so many of the awful results of the social evil that I 
think it is high time we lay aside a false modesty and 
speak out against it. Even within the past week I 
have been called to pray at the death bed of those lost 
girls and have seen a broken hearted old mother weep 
over the awful ruin of her child. And I know that the 
tragedy has been repeated scores and hundreds of times 
in our own city. 

There were such women in the bible times. Read the 
seventh of Proverbs and you will see how accurately 
God has taken her picture. "! discerned among the 
youths a young man void of understanding, passing 
through the streets near her corner and he went the way 
of her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black 



110 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

and dark night. And behold there met him a women 
with the attire of a harlot. She caught him and kissed 
him and said nnto him, 'I came forth to meet thee, and I 
have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings 
of tapestry ; 1 have perfumed my bed with myrrh . Come, 
let us take our fill of love until the morning.' He goeth 
after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter, as 
a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is 
for his life." 

A lost woman was brought into the presence of Jesus. 
The Pharisees wanted her condemned and stoned to 
death. Jesus said, " He that is without sin among you, 
let him cast a stone at her." And the old hypocrits 
went out one by one and Jesus stood alone with the 
woman. The God man asked, " Hath no man condemned 
thee?" She said, "No man Lord." Then Jesus uttered 
the words of our text, " Neither do I condemn thee ; go, 
and sin no more." 

There are hundreds of lost women in our own city to- 
day. Eing the door bell of this fine house, a black ser- 
vant admits you, soft carpets are under your feet, elegant 
furniture invites you to rest. You hear soft music pro- 
duced by skillful lingers ; you say this is the home of 
wealth and luxury. I answer, rather this is oue of the first 
homes of the lost woman. She has an intelligent face, 
talks well on books, travel and current topics, is yet a 
lady in speech and action and could teach some Christian 
women manners. She tells you she has never " boarded" 
before. But she is in the house of death and we make 



MERCY FOR MAGDALENES. Ill 

the prophesy that before ten years have gone by the 
light of life will have gone out forever. 

You go further down the street and enter another 
place. The lamps burn dimly, the ceilings are low, poor 
carpets cover the floors. The dress of the inmates is 
cheap but flashy. Girls dance, and sing the worst songs 
you ever heard; they smoke and swear, and rising from 
your seat you say, " Where am I; in hell V No, this is 
one of the last homes to which the fallen woman comes. 
From here she walks the streets; next she walks into 
hell. When a woman once falls under the grip of the 
devil no man can equal her in shamelessness and wicked- 
ness. 

No wonder you ask the question, " Why is this V In 
my judgment there are many causes. 

From little girls many are taught wrong ideas of work. 
They are brought up in idleness. The mothers think 
the daughters must have white hands, even at the ex- 
pense of black and scarred souls. They are permitted 
even to be ashamed of work. If they wash dishes in a 
kitchen they want it kept a secret, and if they keep 
books for some reliable firm they say, "I'm keeping books 
for a few weeks this vacation, but pray don't mention it." 
Can you not see the result ? These girls go out into the 
world without money — poor, but ashamed of honest work. 
All honor to the girl of to-day who says : "I will make 
an honest living if I die in the attempt." 

The love of fine dress is another cause. A lost woman 
in this city, once said : " I do not like the rustle of silk ; 



112 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

it was the first note in my downfall." Yon will see this 
showy dress in the lowest houses in this wicked city. 
Far better wear the calico and be pnre, than the silk got- 
ten by iniquity. It is not the dress but the heart our 
God looks for. 

Again, our children are brought up to see this evil, 
and they see the rosy side only of this bad life. They 
see the women wearing faultless clothing, living in houses 
of luxury, surrounded with every elegance of life, and 
these poor children say, "How happy!" They do not 
see the dark side, when the rich garments are exchanged 
for rags and the handsome apartments must be given up 
for the hovel. They do not see the once gay girl, within 
ten years, die of drink, or morphine, or a dagger, or a re- 
volver, and by her own hand. Children learn from what 
they see and hear. 

Another cause is the wickedness of the human heart 
Avhen it is not saved and kept by Divine grace. One 
has truthfully said, " There is tinder enough in the heart 
of the best man in the world to burn to the lowest hell, 
if God should not quench the sparks as they fall;" and 
what is true of man is true of woman. 

I know of a family in this city who are well-to-do peo- 
ple. The parents supply the wants of the children most 
bountifully, and are very kind to them. But one of the 
daughters has gone astray. Even when a young girl 
this poor child said, "I would like to lead the life of a 
sporting woman." To-day she is in a house of shame. 
The human heart, unsaved by Jesus Christ, is full of all 
manner of evil beasts. 



MERCY FOR MAGDALENES. 113 

The crowning cause of all is man's awful perfidy. 

Men call it "sowing wild oats." I call it "sowing 
hell." God made man to be woman's defense, and every 
one of them ought to be a Sir Knight to her; but, alas ! he 
is too often the viper that stings her to death. The ani- 
mals who call themselves men, deceive and ruin, abuse 
and forsake her at will. 

In Nebraska City, a few months ago, a beautiful Ger- 
man girl was seen among a company of common emi- 
grants. It was the old story. She met and loved a 
clashing officer in the Eussian army, and fell a victim to 
her folly. Her parents sent her from home, and her 
lover sent her to this country to hide her shame, promis- 
ing to follow and make her his wife. She has waited for 
him six months, but in vain. 

All about us are men who have the appear- 
ance of respectability, yet who lead women into the 
paths of sin. There are physicians in this city who have 
taken advantage of their noble profession to beguile in- 
nocent girls to ruin. In this same city some men who 
plead at the bar have so far forgotten themselves, and 
the lofty principles they advocate, as to stand as the 
tempters, instead of the protectors, of women. I am 
heartily glad that justice is blind, else she would often 
blush. 

Nay, more : some men who attend God's house, who 
are even the professed standard-bearers of the cross, are 
guilty of this direful sin. If Christ were to speak, he 
would truly call you "whited sepulchers" and the world 
would say " amen." 



114 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

In this city, several years ago, a lady was returning 
from the old Lutheran church. She saw a poor, degraded 
woman sitting in her door, and offered her a paper. 
The woman received it and told a page of her history. 
She came here a poor but good girl; she worked very 
hard as a servant. One day a man came to her and 
promised ti> take her to a place where she would not 
need to work so hard. You know the conclusion, for her 
ruin was soon accomplished. 

"]STo\v look at me," she said; and surely a loathsome, 
nameless, disease told her story all too well. " Save the 
many girls who go to ruin in this city every week, 
but let me alone. I cannot be much worse than I am." 

That very man is to-day one of the great, rich men of 
our city. You have often seen him and spoken to him. 
He is a moral leper, and has been the death of scores of 
girls at your very doors. 

Then, how do these men treat the girls they have led 
to ruin — often cast off and spurned as very dogs. Some- 
times, indeed, they are more generous, paying for good 
nursing when the littte new life comes into the world. 
But soon " business" calls them elsewhere, and he leaves 
the city to seek other victims. The poor, forsaken one 
takes her child, and with the world's hiss in her ears 
goes out to right the battle of life alone. 

The man of to-day must not forget that there will be 
a judgment — when men's hearts and lives will be open to 
the world, and such treachery will be known by men and 
angels, even as God knows it now. And with shame 



MERCY FOR MAGHDALENES. 115 

and remorse will they try to hide their guilty souls in 
hell. 

The true, thoughtful man and woman will ask: "Is 
there any help for these women." It is no light task to 
lead the erring back to the path of rectitude. She has 
lost her heart and hope and faith — she has lost all. 

But some do reform. I know of more than one good 
wife in this city who was once a lost woman. And when 
such a one does learn to do well she is the very best — her 
awful experience makes her careful, and the great foun- 
tains of her sympathy well up in her heart for her 
wretched sisters, and she is a tremendous power for right 
and for God. 

At the present, the Sisters of Charity are doing more 
than all other Christians combined for these lost souls. 
Why should we not try to save them ? 

Begin now. Make your homes the best and purest 
possible. Independence, honest self-support, honest pro- 
ductive industry is the thing for women as well as for 
men. 

Brand the sleek old tigers, who ruin women, with 
infamy. Visit the man who supports the house of ill 
fame with the same social ostracism that you heap upon 
the woman. Let him be subject to the same laws and 
fines and treatment that she is — 4ie is her partner in sin. 
Let him stand so before the world. 

" Man must learn to hold the strongest forces of his 
nature for the service of love and life ; he must learn to 
use his tremendous power over the woman, not to de- 



116 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

grade, but to crown her with spotless wifehood and 
motherhood." 

Give these women sympathy and inspire them with 
hope. 

Our dear Lord had this love and sympathy for the 
tearful repentant one who came to him. Hear his 
gracious words: "Xeither do I condemn thee. Go and 
sin no more." ]STo harshness nor long sermons from 
Jesus. 

Dr. James Ludlow tells the story lately of a Christian 
merchant who detected a trusted clerk in a theft, and 
who resolved upon his reclaimation. The good man 
entered so acutely into the agony and remorse of the 
criminal that he prayed "God forgive us. Oh, Christ, 
who died to save that which was lost, save us!" 

Is it any wonder the clerk was redeemed! The 
strength of our sympathy is ever the measure of our 
power to save. 

Do women of Christ's church sympathize witli the 
fallen? 'Tis the mercy of God that has shielded you 
from sin, and Divine grace that has kept you from falling. 

Surely we should have love and sympathy. The 
greater the purity of our characters the more acute will 
be our yearning sympathy with the unfortunate erring- 
ones. It was Jesus who entered most completely into 
the shame of the Magdalene. 

Point the lost souls to a Savior who saves to the utter- 
most. These women believe in Christ and ofttimes can. 
be led to Him by a wise but kind heart. 



MERCY FOR MAGDALENES. 117 

Two lost girls came to a lady in this city and begged 
lier to go and see a dying man. When they reached 
the house, the}^ said to her, "Ask him if he wants to get 
well?" "Ask him if he wants to go to heaven!" and 
" Can you baptize him?" The visitor turned and asked 
the company gathered in the presence of death to sing. 
"Sing, ' Jesus, lover of my soul,'" said she. "]STo;" was 
the answer. " We sang that once, but we're not good 
enough to sing it now." They kneeled with her in prayer 
and joined in her petitions with " God have mercy on us !" 
Our Lord's precious life was given for these souls. 

I would say in conclusion to these women if I could: 
Leave your life of sin. Many of you have told us that 
you are not happy. Why should you be wretched 
through all eternity? 

Christ will receive you and God will help you if you 
will but forsake your sins. 

" There's no place where human sorrows 
Are more felt than up in heaven. 
There's no place where human failures 
Have such kindly notice given. 

For the love of God is broader 

Than the measure of man's mind, 
And the heart of the Eternal 

Is most wonderfully kind. ' ' 

And to us all, God says : "Let him know that he that 
converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save 
a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." 



(LlotKiers. 



Tl(^E find our text this evening in Ezekiel, xxvii, 24: 
^^ "These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, 
in blue clothes and broidered work, and in chests of rich 
apparel." I have been asked to preach this sermon to 
the " Omaha Clothing Salesmen's Association." 1 1 cheer- 
fully respond to this request. It is right in the line of 
my work. There are 09,000 ministers in this country, 
and if they would all speak out, the effect would be tre- 
mendous. Thomas H. Benton, the great American 
statesman, was asked the secret of his success. He re- 
plied. "The secret of my success is ding, dong." The 
iron rod is cut in two by the repeated strokes of the 
hammer on the cold chisel. "Keep a hammering." is 
the watchword of a great preacher. There is neither 
town nor heart so hard that the great gospel hammer 
cannot break it into a thousand pieces if you will only 
keep up the licks. May every preacher, great and small, 
of the 69,000 spring into line and begin to strike. First, 
I have a word to say about your business. It is very 
old and a very respectable work. God went into the 
ladies and gent's clothing business a great many years 
aiiO in the Garden of Eden. He is in it yet and it is my 



CLOTHIERS. 11!) 

opinion that lie will never go out of it. He saw to the 
clothing of the two and a half millions of Jews during 
their forty years march through the wilderness to the 
promised land. Deut. 29:5. When a man does wick- 
edly God clothes him in sackcloth, but when he does 
right he dresses him in the best. Daniel's garb was 
scarlet with a gold chain about his neck. See Luke 8:35. 
Jesus restores reason to the demoniac and clothes him, and 
our heavenly dress he tells us in revelation, shall be white. 

It is a paying business. The Hebrews, as a race, have 
gotten rich selling clothing. In our own country many 
fortunes are made in this way. Secondly, I like the pur- 
pose of your association. Your object is not that you 
may go out in strikes and lockouts at every fancied 
wrong — you have no such thought. You have bound 
yourselves together for physical and spiritual good. 
During the very hot and very cold weather you ask that 
the stores may be closed at half past six except on 
Saturday. You ask this for the months of July, August, 
January and February. In my judgment your request 
is a just one. You cau educate trade, and for your own 
good you ought to do it. 

But the great purpose of this association is to "secure 
one day of rest every week the year around." I am glad 
of this move and I wish you, from the bottom of my 
heart, success, and for the following reasons : 

The Sabbath day will be to you a rest and recreation. 
If you were mules instead of men I would speak in favor 
of your securing this day of rest. "We are seven day 



120 SHOTS FROZtf THE PULPIT. 

clocks and we must be wound up once a week or we will 
run down into the grave." Last Sabbath was the first 
day's rest many of you have had for years. The presi- 
dent of your association said to me: "I shall not soon 
forget how pleasant and restful last Sunday was to me." 
You need this rest and you have a right to demand it. 

Again, when you have this day you will have time for 
the purest and highest enjoyments. Many of you are 
heads of families; all through the week you have hurried- 
ly left them in the morning and returned to them weary 
at night. How precious to you is the Sabbath at home 
with your loved ones. 

It will give you opportunity for the best reading — do 
not let your minds starve. And you can also attend 
divine worship, and some of you have said you would do 
so. I would be glad to see every clerk in this city unite 
with your association and work for this commendable 
object. I will now say a word to the employers. Your 
request must seem resonable to everyone of them. The 
following well known firms have signified their willing- 
ness to close on Sabbath until September 1 : Xew York 
and Omaha Clothing company, Calm Brothers, Nebraska 
Clothing company, M. Hellman and company, Misfit 
Clothing Parlors, Eobinson & Gannon, A. Polack, E. 
Eassmussen, Andrews Brothers. 

L. O. Jones and Davis Brothers being good Method- 
ists have never kept their stores open on the Sabbath. 
I hope that the names of all the clothing merchants may 
be added to this list — that you will not only keep closed 
on the Sabbath till September 1 but until the Judgment. 



CLOTHIERS. 121 

I certainly hope that you will grant the request of 
these men, for it is in harmony with the principles of our 
holy religion. How much the world of trade owes to 
these principles ! A single missionary in the South Sea 
islands is worth to the commerce of England $10,000 a 
year. It took some money to introduce the Christian 
religion into the Sandwich islands, but now we get back 
$5,000,000 a year from these same islands in commerce. 
Your whole trade is due to the fact that men are Christian 
and not heathen. Surely you ought not to oppose the 
institutions which have made you all you are. 

The princes in your business have been men who have 
obeyed God. Samuel Budget, of England, started in 
trade very poor. He was strictly honest. He died im- 
mensely wealthy and universally respected and honored. 
A. T. Stewart made a fine success. He had business 
principles which insure success, and one of those prin- 
ciples was to keep his store closed on the Sabbath. 
John Wanamaker began as a poor man — he had only 
one room and one clerk. Looking at his prosperity you 
can see that these rules were made prominent: "All 
goods marked in plain figures." "Goods returned will be 
received without a question and money refunded." " We 
will keep the Sabbath." Now he has the largest retail 
store in the United States. He is very rich and his 
credit is almost without limit. He is a Christian and 
has the largest Sunday school in Philadelphia. A Lon- 
don banker says: "I came to London thirty years ago 
and have had a great deal of observation, and I have 



122 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

noticed that the bankers who went to their places of 
business on the Sabbath, and attended to affairs, and 
settled up accounts, failed, and without an exception.'' 
A Boston merchant sa}^s: "I have observed a long while, 
and I have noticed when out on the Long wharf, mer- 
chants kept their men busy loading vessels on Sunday, 
and at work from morning till night on the sacred day — 
I noticed all those merchants came to nothing and their 
children came to nothing." " Gentlemen," said a mer- 
chant, although a man of the world, "Gentlemen, it 
dosen't pay to work on Sunday." 

Again, the wise employer keeps the highest welfare of 
his employe in mind; when you do this you only work 
for your own best interests. You cannot work a man 
three hundred and sixty five days in a year without loss 
to yourself as well as to him. 

A prominent merchant in Xew York said, " I should 
long ago have been in the insane asylum but for the obser- 
vance of the Sabbath." The engineer says: "We have 
to let the locomotive stop and cool off or the machinery 
would very soon break down." The manufacturers of salt 
say, "It is most profitable to let the kettles cool one day 
in seven." All this simply means that thoughtful men 
and even dead machinery need the Sabbath rest. 

You have the power to take away the Sabbath of the- 
workingman, but you have no right to do so. You have 
no rights except those which the Lord God Almighty 
gave to you. 

I ask you to-day, what reply will you make to God; 



CLOTHIERS. 123 

when lie tells yon that you took the Sabbath from your 
clerks and gave them nothing in return for it? Beware; 
God calls things by their right names. And above all 
when you take the Sabbath from these men you set 
yourself in opposition to God himself. He says : " Veri- 
ly my Sabbaths ye shall keep." But I need not speak at 
length under this head, for four-fifths of the men in the 
clothing business are Israelites and know well what God 
says about the Sabbath. 

In conclusion, gentlemen of this association, I would 
say, your object is a noble one. May you have the 
blessing of God is my prayer. You have already done 
well but do not stop until every clerk is working with 
you. By your words and petitions you have secured the 
Sabbath rest for a time ; now make a strong plea for a 
continuance of the Sabbath rest. Call to your aid every 
power that will help you. Above all, ask God's help 
and blessing. Having secured this day, be careful how 
you spend it. Spend it with your wives and children 
who have been deprived of your company for the six 
days. On this day ask yourselves the most searching 
questions: Am I the kind of man God would have me 
be? How have I spent the past week? Am I the 
slave of any debasing habit? Am I getting ready. for a 
life which is to last forever? On this clay, read the best 
book in the world; and kneel down and pray to the 
kindest Father in the universe. 



^ 'Warning to ^ourig Dyleu. 



|Y Subject to-Digbt is "Bad Company," and you 
will find my text in I Cor. xv, 33: "Be not de- 
ceived; evil communications corrupt good manners." 
To-night there are thousands of young men and women 
in the city who are chosing their companions. I confess 
to you that I do not wonder that parents and loved ones 
in the far away homes are anxious for you. When an 
acquaintance of your family comes to this city, your 
dear mother says, "Call upon my daughter," or "Be 
sure to see my son and influence him for good." 

One year ago last Fourth of July I was driving my 
carriage, at night, through some of our principal streets. 
Fire works were going off on every side. I stopped at 
the head of these streets and looked down, hut I saw at 
once that by whatever road I reached home I must drive 
through fire. The young men before me to-night are 
walking daily along the streets where the fiercest fires 
are raging. Last night I dreamed a dream that awoke 
me. I saw a man standing on the side of a mountain, 
and as I looked, the piece of earth on which he stood 
gave way and he fell, crushed to death. More than once 
I have seen that dream come true in real life, and the 
ruin came not only to body, but to body and soul. 



A WARNING TO YOUNG MEN. 125 

This text takes it for granted that we can tell bad 
company from good, and warns us not to be deceived. I 
believe in the power of intuition, especially in the case 
of our sisters. You can read the heart by the face and 
you need not be deceived. Moreover, we can all tell by 
the effect our companions have upon us whether they be 
good or evil. The good elevates, but the bad degrades. 
The bad fills the mind with evil thoughts, and causes you 
to break away from the teachings of godly parents. 
The bad leads you, little by little, into the haunts of vice, 
and the road downward is all the more pleasant, because, 
the first steps of the sinner are in paths where flowers 
bloom with the thorns well concealed. The devil puts 
the best first and later on applies the scorpion sting. 
Xot so with our Father. He leads His children up a way 
that grows brighter aud brighter till they reach the 
perfect day. 

Let me show you by example from real life how men 
get into bad company. Men do not go to the devil alone. 
One sheep gets the scab, and he gives it to many others 
in the flock. In considering this subject, it does seem 
to me that the devil has the best friends. His crowd 
works the hardest. He has the sweetest and most lively 
music, the softest carpets, the brightest and most cheer- 
ful rooms, the j oiliest company. A father and mother 
may be bad company for their child. What an awful 
thought ! We cannot honor our parents unless they are 
worthy of honor. I know a man in this city whose 
mother gave him his first glass of liquor when he was 



126 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

seven years old. His father looked on an smiled as 
much as to say," He has started right." At ten years 
of age this same boy was taught to gamble by his 
father. But we thank God there are not many such 
cases. In most instances parents want their children to 
be good even though they themselves have fallen to 
great depths. 

Mr. C. E. Mayne, of our city, says he will give the 
land, and a certain sum each month, to establish a home 
for poor, homeless boys. I sincerely hope that his offer 
may be accepted; that many of the little waifs may 
be furnished a home and be rescued from the fierce tires 
of temptation which surround them. If we could only 
keep the little children out of the paths of sin, what a 
work we would accomplish! Victor Hugo has most 
truthfully said : " All the crimes known to men spring 
from the vagrancy of childhood." I knew a young man, 
in one of our principal churches, a short time ago, who 
had been well taught. He was more than commonly 
tine looking. Step by step he went down. At first he 
listened to impure stories, soou he chose the company of 
the impure. A little later on his friends were aston- 
ished that he, of all others, should fall. He still tried 
to keep up a show of respectability, but at night he 
would leave his room for the companionship of the vilest, 
and just before daybreak he would sneak back to his 
home, his guilty soul covered with filth. In another of 
our churches, to-night, there is a young man whose 
name is on the record of the earthly church, but it is 



A WARNING TO YOUNG MEN. 127 

not upon the record above, for lie has chosen bad com- 
pany. Let me tell you this, young men : You may de- 
ceive men, but you cannot fool God. You may claim to 
be a sheep on earth, but if you are a goat you will be 
found among the goats at last. I have another example: 
A young man came to this city oue year ago. He left 
his wife and children in the east. He fell into bad com- 
pany. He earned money, but spent it freely. The 
other day he woke up to the fact that bad company had 
well nigh been his ruin. To-clay he is making desperate 
efforts to reform. Here is an instance that has many a 
parallel in our midst: A young man starts out in so- 
ciety. He aspires to keep the company of men above 
him in wealth and social position, but these men are old 
in the ways of siu. The result is moral wreck and ruin. 
I will tell you how I measure men. T measure them by 
what they have written on their shield and sword. I 
w^ant the word "character" written on the shield and 
u ability " on the sword. 

Eternity alone will reveal the souls that have been 
ruined by bad company. Do you ask me the results! I 
can not enumerate them or tell you how fearful they are. 
If you keep bad company you will be classed with it. 
A man comes to be no better than the company he 
keeps. The stork which was caught in the net was 
treated just as the cranes were, which were destroy- 
ing the crop. Again, what you learn in bad company 
will be a lasting pang to you. John B. Gough said, " I 
would give my right hand to-night if I could forget that 



128 SHOTS FROItf THE PULPIT. 

which I have learned in evil society." Bad company will 
rain your business prospects. It will overcome the holy 
teachings you received in childhood. It will kill the 
purest and most sacred religious emotions and impress- 
ions, and will ultimately be your eternal ruin. 

Iu conclusion let me counsel you to shun the company 
which drags you down. It is better and safer to ride 
alone than to have a thief's company. Break away from 
bad men. Stop while you have the power to stop, for 
the day will come when you will be bound hand and 
foot. You say: "Can't I have my dear friends?" He is 
not a clear friend who stabs your soul. Pick up your 
hat and with an earnest prayer walk away from the bad 
to the company of the good. Hitch yourself to Christ, 
for he is the strongest power in the universe. Then stay 
in the company of God's people, give yourself fully to 
God and hour by hour ask him to keep you. And if 
you do He will keep you. He would rather let go all 
the stars than let go of one earnest, seeking, clinging 
soul. 




The Barbers. 



/QiZEKIEL v, 1: "And thou, son of man, take thee a 
^■■^ barber's razor and cause it to pass upon thine head 
and upon thy beard." 

I address this sermon to the barbers of Omaha. 

I have been looking up the past history of your pro- 
fession. The word barber is from the Latin " barba " 
meaning the beard. It comes to mean one who shaves- 
others and cuts their hair. GOO B. C. the prophet Ezekiel 
speaks of the barber's razor. Among the ancient Israel- 
ites the removal of the beard, by shaving or plucking it 
out, was a sign of mourning. The practice of shaving 
the head was common among the ancient Egyptians, 
Greeks and Eomans. In China and other Oriental 
countries barbers shave all or part of the head. 

In former times the barber served the public in the 
capacity of surgeon and performed the operation of bleed- 
ing. The spiral red stripe seen on the barber's pole is 
said to symbolize the winding of a ribbon round the arm 
previous to letting blood. 

In London in 1461 the barbers founded "a corporation 
with certain privileges." They united with the surgeons 
during the reign of Henry YIII. The connection was 
dissolved in the reign of George II. 



130 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Iii recent years even the surgeons of the Swedish 
navy were also the crew's barbers. 

I find that in modern times the tousorial art has 
reached a high degree of perfection. 

The United States has many shops with the very 
finest appointments, presided over by men well trained 
and skillful in their work. 

The barber shops were once rude affairs, but now they 
are transformed into palaces of beauty and elegance. 

Mr. Fred Eton owns a most handsome shop connected 
with the Palmer house, Chicago. The room is finished 
with white marble. Large and beautiful pier glasses 
adorn the walls and the ceiling itself is one immense 
mirror. The floor is composed of marble tiling inlaid 
with silver dollars. 

The shop at the Grand Pacific in the same city is also 
remarkably fine. The shop in the West house in 
Minneapolis is considered the finest this side of Chicago. 
This room is decorated with marble of many hues. 

The Lindel house in St. Louis has a fine shop, the 
barbers of this shop all being colored men. 

The Southern hotel in the same city has also a palatial 
shop, and we are told that the shop in the Palace hotel, 
San Francisco, is grand, and the prices are such as to 
suit the most aristocratic, being twenty-five cents for 
shaving and half a dollar for hair cutting. 

I am told that there are about three hundred barbers 
in this city and more are constantly coming, and Omaha 
is the best paying city for this class of workmen in the 



THE BARBERS. 131 

United States. Our best shops pay from fifteen to 
-eighteen dollars a week, while in New York the barber 
who works by the week gets from twelve to thirteen 
dollars, and in Chicago, sixteen dollars is the highest 
price paid. In Chicago, where a man works on per cent- 
age, he gets from forty to forty-five cents on the dollar, 
whereas here he has sixty per cent. 

The past week I have met many of the barbers of 
this city and have talked with them personally. I find 
them to be a very gentlemanly, well-dressed, happy set 
of men — men who have plenty at present and who bor- 
row no trouble for the future. 

But I tell you plainly, many of you are great sinners. 
I take it for granted that you want me to tell you of 
your sins. You would have no respect for me nor the 
high office I have been called to fill if I told you that 
you were a company of saints. You know better. 

I find that most men agree with Webster when he 
said, "When I go to church I want a man to drive me 
into the end of the pew and make me feel that I must 
quit fighting God sometime." 

I find that the barbers of this city fall into the sins to 
which our poor humanity are subjected everywhere; and 
then they have some special temptations. The great 
sin that you are guilty of is "Sabbath breaking." This, 
in your case is the fruitful mother of many other evils. 
When a man breaks the fourth commandment, as a rule, 
he breaks others with it. 

The reason why you work on the Sabbath is, as I un- 
derstand it, you are afraid you will lose your customers. 



132 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

It is the old question of the almighty dollar, and a fear 
to trust God. I do not believe the Sunday work in the 
barber shop is a necessity. In the states of Tennessee 
and Maryland it is not practiced, nor is it in many of the 
cities east of Cincinnati. The east and south do not find 
it a necessity; why should the west? 

Some tell us that six hundred traveling men make 
their headquarters here in this city, and it is for their 
accommodation that you keep open on Sabbath. But I 
answer that three hundred barbers can shave and take 
care of six hundred traveling men on Saturday night, 
This is done in other cities and could be done here. 

Again, this Sabbath work makes the barber little 
better than a slave. He has no day of rest. During the 
week you go to work at seven in the morning and work 
until nine at night. On Sabbath you begin at seven 
and work until noon, and proprietors of shops do not 
get away from their places of business until two or three 
o'clock Sunday afternoon, and that after having worked 
until midnight on Saturday. 

We are told that in some shops in this city the men 
are given a day of rest every two weeks, but this is by 
no means general. Many a barber in this city knows 
no clay of rest. 

Some of you ran from the task masters of the south. 
I would like to see you forsake the service of the Great 
Slave Master. 

Xor do I believe that the keeping of Sabbath would 
ruin your trade. The devil will tell you that if you don't 



THE BARBERS. 133 

serve him seven days in the week that you will fail in 
business; but he is the father of lies. 

But the great reason why you should not work on the 
Sabbath is because God forbids it. Exodus xx, 10. 
" Thou shalt not do any work." The barber who works 
on the Sabbath breaks both the laws of God, and the 
laws of the state. He is, then, a law breaker. 

How I would like to see you take a stand for the 
Sabbath. Rise up in a body and ask the mayor to en- 
force the Sunday law in your profession, and if this is 
not done, stand on the promise of God, and keep His day 
holy. 

I have not met a barber in this city who believes it is 
right to work on God's day. Live up to your convic- 
tions of duty and God will bless you. 

I am not surprised to find, that having broken the 
fourth commandment, other sins follow in the wake 
of Sabbath breaking. As a class of men you are not 
found in God's house. You believe iu the church, in 
God, and in His worship. You even urge your families 
to attend divine service, but you yourself are seldom 
found there. Let me urge upon you the necessity of 
church going. Let me give you a cordial invitation to 
the house of God, aud thus put yourself in the way of 
the divine blessing. 

The papers found in your shops are not always the 
best. You keep the Police Gazette and the Illustrated 
Police Eews on your tables. Through these papers you 
fill the minds of boys and young men with all kinds of 



134 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

evil. You would not have a poisonous serpent on youi 
tables lest it should bite your customers; no more should 
you have the seeds of evil and death in the shape of bad 
reading. Rather lay a bible and the best and purest 
papers you can get where your customers will find them. 

Men gathered at the shop of Licinius in Rome, to be 
inspired with high and noble thoughts. Follow the 
example of this noble man. 

You do not save your money. You get $60 or $70 a 
month, yet you remain poor. Many of you spend your 
money even before you have it. If you go on this way 
you must die poor. Why not look ahead to the day 
when the palsy will strike your arm and you can hold 
the razor no longer; when old Father Time has turned 
your black hair white? Ah! then you will sigh for the 
dollars you are now throwing away. If you have no 
money when you die they will say: "Bury that poor 
old barber in the potter's field; it's good enough for him." 

Again, many of your number fall victims to strong 
drink. You drink liquor that will make you break open 
your own trunk. It is drink that takes your money and 
muddles your brain, and makes your hand unsteady, 
and, worse than all else, will ruin your immortal souls. 

Break off from strong drink. 

You, also, go with her who is described in the 
seventh chapter of Proverbs. Will you not read that 
description? Many strong men have been slain by her; 
her house is the way to hell; going down to the 
chambers of death. Are some of you not in that road ? 



THE BARBERS. 135 

God asks you to break off your sins by righteousness. 
Christ Jesus, our Lord, will cleanse your hearts and will 
walk with you, and keep you, in the hour of temptation. 

God says: " Though your sins be as scarlet they shall 
be white as snow." Do right. Make a straight line for 
heaven and God will help you. I would inspire you if 
I could with the highest and holiest motives. 

Licinius, the gifted Soman orator, was a barber. A 
man should adorn his profession. May you be truly 
good and noble. 

Be sure of this — if you do as God would have you all 
will be well. Your lives will be both fortunate and 
happy ; but if you disobey and dishonor Him you must 
suffer present and eternal loss ; for God says in Isaiah vii, . 
20, " that He will take the razor in his own hand and 
shave with it." 

God's judgments are razors. May you so live that 
His judgments may not fall upon you. 




The Tobacco 2Kabit. 



/^NUR text to-night is found in II Cor. vii, 1 : "Let us 
^^ cleanse ourselves from all filtbiness of the flesh 
and spirit." 

There are many before me to-night who are addicted 
to the use of the weed and I aim my guns right at you. 

The preacher's business is to strike at living, present 
issues. I do not hold the opinion that the old Baptist 
deacon did, of whom I have heard. The deacon invited 
the young preacher home to tea. At the close of the 
meal the host pushed his chair back and told the 
preacher he hoped, as he was just entering on the work, 
that he would be very discreet. " A want of discretion," 
said he, " was the fault of our last preacher, but he did 
not stay long. I hope you will be careful in your choice 
of subjects for sermons. I advise you not to preach on 
Sunday driving, for our people keep good rigs and in- 
dulge in that sort of recreation. And, don't preach 
against card playing, for when our young people get to- 
gether, they take a social game ; but above all else, don't 
cry down the liquor business, for some of our heaviest 
contributors either sell or drink liquor." " Well," said, 



THE TOBACCO HABIT. 137 

the preacher, "what shall I preach?" The deacon re- 
plied, " Give it to the Jews, there are none of them in 
town." 

But I like to aim right at you and see you twist and 
wriggle around in these seats. If you have a filthy or 
sinful habit, and I hear of it, I shall tell you of it. 
That is what you pay me for, and you must not growl 
if I do my duty. And I give you the same privelege. 
It is your duty to tell your preacher what is wrong in 
him, and if the preacher is a man and a Christian, he 
will turn his back on his sins and get right before God. 

In our country hundreds and thousands use tobacco. 
They dip, or chew, or smoke. Old men, with bent forms 
and snow-white hair are slaves to the habit. Men in 
their prime and proud of their sense, will " indulge ." 
Little boys of eight and ten years think it is a manly 
thing to be found smoking. The young man knocking 
at the door of society, has his hair and his watch chain 
parted in the middle and the inevitable cigar in his 
pocket. And what is most wonderful, professed Chris- 
tians use it. One of our members met a brother mem- 
ber, the other day, and said to him, "Are you a mem- 
ber of our church f " " Yes, I am," he replied, and ac- 
companied the words by the ejectment of a great mouth- 
ful of tobacco juice. Class leaders in the Methodist 
church use it. They tell us to " get around during the 
week and live right, and give a clear, clean testimony 
for God," and when they go out of the church door they 
light a cigar or take a bite off of the plug. I have 



138 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

heard of a preacher who had a spittoon in the pulpit, 
and he would throw the quid he had heen chewing in it, 
and read out of the Bible for the morning lesson, "Bles- 
sed are the pure in heart for they shall see God ; " or, 
he would read our text, " Let us cleanse ourselves from 
all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness in the 
sight of God." And some square, sensible sinner, sit- 
ting in the pew, will say in his heart, " Old fellow, you 
don't mean that ; you are only giving us wind." 

I have tried to find out why men acquire this habit. 
A preacher whom I know says he smokes for corns and 
chews so that he can spit yellow. Many use the weed 
because they have learned the habit when young, hav- 
ing been taught the art by bad boys ; or they were 
taught the vile practice by men who lacked both sense 
and principle. Now the habit has fastened upon them, 
and they are slaves. 

Some use it, so they tell us, for neuralgia, some use it 
as an antidote for fat, but my judgment is men use it 
because they like it. They use it for the same reason 
that men use liquor or opium, or any other harmful drug. 
They like the soothing effect of the bewitching narcotic. 

I am fully convinced that men ought to abstain from 
the use of tobacco. I have never found a man who 
would advise me to begin the use of this weed. The 
best and wisest men speak against the practice. 

Again, it is very filthy. It pollutes whatever it 
touches. The beautiful white snow in winter is stained 
by the tobacco juice from some loafer's mouth. The 



THE TOBACCO HABIT. 139 

railway coaches on which so much money is expended 
for cleanliness are often pools of filth. The floor of 
God's house is often the cuspidore for the men who must 
chew every precious moment of their lives. When I 
see home and public conveyance and church polluted, in 
utter disgust, I say, "Make way for the great American 
hog!" 

It is very expensive. There are two kinds of tobacco 
— the cheap and the costly. 

The cheap kind is composed of a compound of burdock, 
lampblack, sawdust and a little bad tobacco. If you 
make any pretensions of bemg a man you will not smoke 
that stuff. But the first-rate tobacco is very expensive. 

I find many men who are too poor to take a church 
paper which costs the enormous sum of $2.00. But 
they never hesitate to pay out $15.00 a year for plug 
tobacco. 

I know a fine young man in this city who pays $10.00 
to the church and 860.00 in the same time for cigars, 
with this additional difference — he pays cash for the 
cigars, but the cause of God must wait on him. 

A man in the city of Xew York, thirty years ago, 
smoked six cigars a day. He made up his mind he 
would stop and save as much. Thirty years passed by. 
This money had been placed on compound interest and 
amounted to $29,102 with which he bought a handsome 
country residence. 

In our own country we burn up in cigars alone one 
hundred million dollar every year, and if the money 



140 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

were all we wasted, the loss would not be as appalling as 
it is. 

Moreover, this habit is a powerful tyrant. It has con- 
quered wherever it has gone. The habit sprang up in 
Yucatan, on this continent, a great many years ago. It 
crossed the Atlantic and captured Spain. Kext it put 
its brand on Portugal. Then the French minister 
thought he would do a nice thing and he took it to 
France, but it enslaved the people. Sir Walter Raleigh 
took it to London and it captured the English. 

When once this weed has seized a man he is in its 
clutches. 

Men sometimes choose tobacco instead of bread. I 
have lately talked to an old soldier who lay for some 
time in one of the southern prisons. These prisoners 
had a pound of corn bread issued them daily. But there 
were no regular rations of tobacco. Oh, how the boys 
longed for it ! These men would save a small piece of 
corn bread from their scanty allowance and then exchange 
these scraps of bread for a twist of tobacco. Again, I 
charge this vile weed with being the frightful mother of 
disease. Many are asking to-day: "Does the use of 
tobacco produce cancerous and other troubles P 

The medical fraternity of the United States and Great 
Britain affirm that tobacco is one of the great causes of 
disease. If I take any poisonous drug into my system I 
must expect to face the result. 

Tobacco ruins digestion and produces a genuine case 
of dyspepsia. 



THE TOBACCO HABIT. 141 

But my strongest point against the tobacco habit is, it 
is a sin against God. If the position I have taken in 
this sermon be correct, you can readily see that the 
habit is sin. God says : " Let us cleanse ourselves from 
all filthiness of the flesh." He also says: "Know ye 
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost!" 




3/Cariliriess. 



Z^TOU will find my text to-nidit in I Kings, ii, 2: 
J^y "Shew thyself a man." My subject this evening is 
Christian Manliness. A group of boys were once tal king- 
about what they wished to be. One wanted to be a 
physician, one a lawyer, and one a farmer, but when the 
last little fellow was asked what he would be, he said, 
"I waut to be a man, sir." That, I hold is the very 
noblest ambition. Boys are growing into men all about 
us, and I would they were resolved to be men. 

There are false ideas prevalent as to what constitutes 
true manliness. One or more of the prime virtues, or 
a certain style of living, is made to stand for true manli- 
ness. One says, " Physical strength is the prime factor 
in the make-up of a man." This idea is very old, but 
not obsolete even to-day. Picking- up a paper last week 
I read this significant notice: Patsy O'Leary, the Cin- 
cinnati feather-weight, to meet Tommy Miller, a local 
champion, for 8500." Again, within the past few days, 
in prominent places in the city, I have read a flaming 
poster something like this: "Monster athletic tourna- 
ment at the Bass Ball park, Sunday, October 16, com- 
mencing promptly at 2 o'clock. Foot races, sack races, 



MANLINESS. 143 

pole vaulting, jumping exhibitions and feats of strength 
of every description." You see plainly that the idea 
that "physical strength and skill makes the man" has so 
taken hold of the people that men now cannot keep God's 
day sacred — they must meet for all kinds of displays of 
physical strength on the Holy Sabbath. 

For one, I cry out, not only on account of the gross 
violation of the sacred day, but also against such a low 
standard of manliness. The finest development of 
physical manhood may be an absolute stranger to true 
nobility of character. 

Contrast Samson with Alexander H. Stephens and 
tell me if physical strength is all you demand. I see 
that sickly cripple from the South walk with one cane, 
then with two canes, and toward the last of his most 
useful and brilliant career, I walk behind him as he is 
wheeled along in his chair, and I seem that poor, diseased, 
body the spirit of a splendid man flash out. But when I 
see a man in training for the prize ring eating raw meat, 
I see a little more of the bulldog in him than man. 

Again, there are others who believe that a great in- 
tellect is absolutely essential to manliness, but I do not 
accept this position. Lord Bacon stood on the very 
pinnacle of scholarship, but I do not believe he would be 
accepted by any of you as a high type of man. AVhen 
we read his essays or his "Xovurn Organum" we say: 
"What a magnificent mind!" But when we see him led 
down Tower hill a prisoner for swindling, and when we 
see him branded as the betrayer of the truest friendship, 



144 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

we say: " What a poor excuse of a man." He lacks 
everything but mind to constitute a man. 

Then, too, the manner of life, in the view of some, is 
an important factor. Fast living they think absolutely 
essential. The young man must drink, smoke, and swear 
like a man. These, in my judgment, are absolutely 
false. The young man who drinks, and smokes and 
swears, does so at the expense of manhood of the highest 
type. Some of the finest men the world has ever known 
have lived on the plainest fare. The best orator of the 
Eighteenth century, we are told, "usually dined on a 
cow's heel." And when the celebrated Englishman, 
Andrew Marvel, refused to take the bribe money he only 
had soup for his dinner. 

There are many other false ideas as to what constitutes 
true manhood, but we pass these by that we may give 
what we believe is the true idea of Christian manliness : 
I would, first of all, have the foundation right. I would 
have the would-be-man apply for a new heart. I would 
tell him to ask for and get a clean heart. God has these 
to give away. Godliness is the highest form of manliness. 
"New Testament sainthood is perfect manliness." 

Study Daniel in Babylon and Jesus in Galilee. 
Daniel's piety was the Corinthian pillar in his character, 
and I do not at all wonder that Thomas Hughes wrote 
of the "Manliness of Christ." I despair of the man who 
does not stand on the solid masonry of righteousness. 
Daniel could only show himself a man by keeping the 
statutes and commandments. 



MANLINESS. 145 

Then I would have the man " go on," having started 
right with God, make out of yourself with divine help all 
that is possible. The highest type of man is really made 
up of the three — the physical, mental and spiritual, and 
these are developed together; if any one is neglected, 
your man is one-sided. Then, when this three-fold 
development is carried out, you have a man. You have 
good principles, honesty, truthfulness, sobriety, honor 
and loyalty to all that is pure, good and right. 

The demand of the hour is for Christian manliness. 
God wants to see this gem sparkle in the house of clay? 
and if we do the tithe of what He sent us to do, we must 
be the rich possessors of genuine manliness. We have 
come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Our faith 
lives by conflict, and we should seek to see the face of 
our foe. We, as Christian men, are on the eve of the 
greatest victories or the greatest defeats the world has 
ever seen. The fight for the Christian Sabbath. The 
battle against Mormonism and the awful hand-to-hand 
struggle against the rum power, are upon us. The 
grand deeds of the past ought to inspire present action. 
God looks every where for Christian manliness. Let 
Him not be disappointed. 




Street (£ar ©rivers, 



/q\UR text will be found in James, v, 2: "Ye have 

^^ heard of the patience of Job." The class of men I 
preach to this evening need new hearts first of all. 
Then they need patience as the prime Christian grace. 
It it were possible for you to buy patience by the yard I 
would advise you to lay in a large supply, but the fact is, 
God must give you the start and then you can by divine 
help grow this beautiful plant. One of the oldest em- 
ployes on the red line told me the other day that he be- 
lieved if the devil had made Job a street car driver in- 
stead of afflicting him with boils, his history might have 
been different. 

I will first point out to you some of the drivers' hard- 
ships and trials, and as we go on you will see my pur- 
pose in this. He has long hours and must keep at his 
work through all kinds of weather. You, in slippers and 
gown, sit by your warm fire in your cozy sitting room, 
and you congratulate yourself that you do not have to 
face the fearful storm without. You hear the passing- 
car, but perhaps you do not think of the man who must 
drive two or three hours after you are asleep. How 
lightly we bear the ills of others. Christ had a fellow 



STREET CAR DRIVERS. 14' 



driver's patience is also put to the test by the kicking 
bronchos lie must drive. A broncho is a wild unbroken 
horse from the west. In our city we work very largely 
the Oregon horse, but the skill of the driver is taxed to 
the uttermost before he is broken. However, some of 
these horses in the street car service have taught me 
many a lesson. God meant this world to be our school 
room. There is one horse on the red line that I admire 
very much. I hope the men slip him an extra ear of 
corn occasionally. He is black and wdiite, somewhat in 
color like the regulation show horse, and on this ac- 
count he is called " Barn urn." He is so true and strong 
and steady that the company keep him for the purpose 
of breaking bronchos. When a wild horse won't go "Old 
Barnum' 1 just pulls Mr. Broncho, car, and the whole 
business right along. You can hitch that horse to any- 
thing and he will work in any spot or place. He will pull 
a straight dead pull forty times if you give him the word. 
That is the sort of Christians God wants to-clay — Christ- 
ians so true and faithful that they will pull a wild, reck- 
less, soul right along to heaven with them. I am afraid 
the "broncho breakers" in the church are scarce. 

There Avas also a horse on St. Mary's Avenue hill that 
I learned a good lesson from. He needed no driver. He 
would go down the hill and turn around to be hitched to 
the heavily loaded car. He worked there till he pulled his 
legs out of shape and his knees knocked together. That 
horse was worth more to the world than some of the men 



148 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

he pulled up that hill. I believe in the immortality of 
such horses. 

Again, the street car driver has to deal with many un- 
reasonable people. I should say many cranky people. 
Some "ladies" (?) stand in their door and shout "car." 
The driver stops. The "lady" goes back to take an- 
other look in the glass or to get something she has for- 
gotten. The driver moves on. The lady dashes out with 
the car two blocks away; so she reports the driver at the 
office. 

Some of these street car cranks belong to our churches 
and profess to have religion. In my opinion when they 
thought they got religion they got something else. 

One of the most sensible men in the service told me 
this instance: A man stood on the sidewalk, but he 
made no sign to the driver. The driver said, "Do you 
want the car?" The answer was given in the affirma- 
tive. When the man entered he said to the passengers: 
"That fool driver asked me if I wanted the car and I had 
been standing in the hot sun for half an hour." The 
driver opened the door and said, "How should I know 
you wanted a car, you gave me no sign." The angry 
passenger replied, " Shut that door and shut yonr mouth." 
Though it was against the rules, the driver said, "I 
would advise you to take Ben Franklin's advice — ' Keep 
your mouth shut and people won't know you area fool.'" 
Isn't it wonderful that some people cannot get on a 
street car and drop a nickle in the box without getting 
into a fight? That shows how much the majority ot 
people need religion — they need it bad. 



STREET CAR DRIVERS. 149 

Take another case of pure meanness. A man comes 
out of a store where there is plenty of change. It is very 
cold. He pulls off his glove and hands the driver a dime. 
If the change is not returned in three seconds, he kicks 
the door and shouts: " Hurry up there, don't you know 
I'm freezing?" If the driver does not say it aloud, lie 
says in his heart: "I have been here for fourteen hours 
this bitter clay, with my glove off much of the time, deal- 
ing with just such old bears as you are." Another man 
passes his money to the driver and shouts to him to 
attend to his business, but does not see that the driver 
is turning his brake to save that carriage yonder driven 
by a lady. Others wrong him by passing the counter- 
feit dollar in the dark. I saw one in the hands of one of 
the drivers the other day. This must come out of the 
poor bov's pay. Shame on a man who will cheat a hard 
working street car driver. When the car is crowded the 
plot thickens. There are a great many people who 
can't behave themselves in a crowd. There is a man on 
the back platform who will not pay. He is neatly 
dressed, but he is "immense," isn't he? He cheats the 
company out of a nickle. 

When questioned by the driver he says he has paid. 
He is both a thief and a liar. Then there is the ever- 
lasting man who must smoke on the car. He knows it 
is against the rules but he has only smoked twelve cigars 
since morning and time is precious. I should think the 
wife and children of such an old tobacco tub would go 
half way clown town to meet him. It is a standing won- 



150 SHOTS FR03I THE PULPIT. 

der to me that they don't burst with pride over such an 
"angel." I will not speak of the "small boy" and his 
pranks on the driver. I can't do that subject justice. 
I repeat the text only, " Ye have heard of the patience 
of Job." 

Now we ask, how can the driver be helped ? The 
patrons of the street car could make the driver's position 
a very pleasant one. Let me give you a point or two. 
Those who make trouble with the drivers are people who 
consider themselves very smart, or especially fortunate. 
As a rule they are " codfish aristocracy." People who 
suddently find themselves rich, or the recipients of pub- 
lic honors, are often very difficult to manage on a street 
car. The prodigal son was an sample of this sort of peo- 
ple. If he had ridden on a street car going out from 
home he would have knocked the driver down several 
times, or have been knocked down himself. But he 
would have made no trouble on the trip back. He had 
the conceit all taken out of him. If you treat people 
right they will treat you right. Help the driver keep 
the rules. Don't insist on his breaking them. Get 
enough religion to take the deviltry and selfishness out 
of you, and then you can ride in any kind of a rig on 
God's earth and be happy, but if the devil is in you, you 
will fight your own grand-mother. Suffer wrong rather 
than do wrong. Never think of throwing a man out of 
work because of some slight offered you. 

The company could help him. Ten o'clock at night is 
late enough for any man to work. I have no doubt that 



STREET CAR DRIVERS. J 51 

when Jesus comes to dwell in person on this earth that 
all the cars will be in the barn at ten o'clock and the 
drivers will be having prayers in their families. And on 
the Sabbath not a wheel will turn, but the streets will 
be full of people walking to church, and among them will 
be the street car driver with his wife and children on the 
way to the house of the Lord. May God hasten that 
day. But the drivers' greatest help must come from 
God. God will help you turn away from your sins, and 
He will forgive the past and He will bless and strengthen 
you. Some of these days you will make the last trip on 
earth. Where will you spend eternity? An old stage 
driver in the west was dying. He had driven on the 
mountain roads. He said: "I am on the down grade 
and I can't reach the brake." I counsel you to be ready 
for the great journey into eternity. 




(a ambling. 

a 



|Y subject to-night is "Gambling" and you will 
find my text in Matthew, xxvii, 35: "They 
parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture 
did they cast lots." 

Gambling is risking something with the expectation of 
winning more than you hazard. It is getting something 
without ever having rendered an equivalent. Ofttimes it 
comes very nearly being the getting of something for 
nothing. The instruments of the art are well known ; 
the cards, the cue and balls, the dice, and various other 
implements. Gambling is carried on in rooms kept and 
often built especially for that purpose. The house of the 
lost woman and the gambling house have the most ele- 
gant furniture, though I am very glad to say that in this 
city the public gambling houses have been closed in con- 
sequence of a prohibitory law enacted against gambling 
last winter by the legislature of Xebraska. This law 
makes gambling a crime, to which a heavy penalty is 
affixed. It went into effect on the 4th day of last July, 
and whenever gambling is done now in the city, it must 
be clone secretly. I am glad to hear, too, that " Mayor 
Boche, of Chicago, has walked into that office and has 



GAMBLING. 153 

driven every gambler out of the city and has reformed 
the saloons, just as far as the laws of his state will per- 
mit him to do." A first-rate major, and a first-rate judge, 
can reform a city, even if the city council is not sanctified. 
But I am sorry to say that we, as a people, do not stop 
gambling, when the rooms hitherto used for that purpose 
are closed. If our people can't gamble one way, they 
will another. The men who go to see the great leagues 
play ball, bet on one side or the other. If the gambling 
element were taken out of the American game to-day it 
would amount to nothing. Men go to the horse races 
for the same purpose. I am told that Hiram Woodruff 
was an honest and humane mau, but the horses he trained 
caused many a dollar to change hands. On the great 
tracks, to-day, fortunes are made and lost, and as the 
telegraph has nearly eliminated time and space, men in 
Omaha bet on base ball in Boston or the horse races at 
Long Branch. Lotteries, too, are all the rage at the 
present. We are told that a few years ago a man in 
Chicago found an unprofitable building on his hands, and 
he resolved to make all this country help him out of the 
difficulty. Lottery offices were opened in all the great 
cities. Philadelphia bought over $30,000. Xew York 
took $100,000. As the time for the drawing approached, 
the trains were loaded to their fullest capacity. The 
man who held the ticket, 58,600, drew the opera house. 
This so-called fortunate man soon died of drunken- 
ness, and the house which had been raffled away, was 
soon back in the hands of its original owner. This 



151 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

lottery business has become a curse. Last Monday a 
prominent man living at Orleans, Neb., in the Republi- 
can valley, received word that the ticket he held in a 
certain lottery entitled him to $15,000. The result is 
that hundreds of poor men who cannot afford it will buy 
tickets, and of course they will never get a cent. Men 
also gamble in the grain markets. They call it " buying 
options." Men gamble in churches. You pay five cents 
for the privilege of fishing with hook and line in the fish 
pond ; you pay twenty-five cents for a chance for the cake 
with the five dollar gold piece or the ring in it. The 
principle is the same as if you had taken a ticket in the 
Louisiana lottery. One evening one of the daughters of 
General Sherman was trying to induce him to take 
shares in a chance scheme for a church fair. The general 
replied : " Why, Eachel, we have gotten along all our lives 
thus far without gambling; do you think we had better 
begin now ? " Let General Sherman's words be told to 
the Christians who play "progressive euchre." Boys, as a 
rule, are not allowed in gambling houses. That is to say 
this is the rule, but I am sorry to add that it is often 
broken. Men of all classes gamble — both rich and poor. 
I have known preachers' sons to be infatuated with the 
game. A* few years ago one of my own church members 
drew a horse in a lottery and he worked that horse for 
many a day. We are told that gamblers are very honest 
men, reliable, r men of their word, and that they are liberal. 
It is to their interest to be so considered, but they are liberal 
with other^men's money, and are honest when they have 



GAMBLING. 155 

that money, but when luck turns, they will rob you quick 
enough. If I am ever called to officiate at the funeral of 
a gambler I shall not call him a fine fellow — he is a rob- 
ber for he takes what he never earned. 

If you ask me why men gamble, I would say that they 
do it for various reasons. The church member in a so- 
cial company plays "progressive euchre" for pleasure and 
to get the gift or stake that is offered. Some men gam- 
ble for the pleasure and facination there is in it. "Life," 
you know, "is such a humdrum affair" that they must 
have something interesting. But the great majority 
play because there is a possibility of making large sums 
of money quickty, and with very little capital. What a 
force there is in that thought to the mass of men. 
" Large sums quickly made and with little capital." 

Men ask, " Is] gambling wrong, and why ? " With- 
out question it is wrong. It is death to honest toil. 
Look at the gambler's hands ! They are as white and 
soft as a woman's. He was born tired. I ask you, how 
many men in this town who were gamblers before July 
1, 1887, are now engaged in honest, legitimate work ? 

A gambler will no more work than a " progressive 
euchre " player will pray in public. 

Men lose their money by means of gaming. At one 
time in Italy $14,000,000 were annually expended by the 
poorer population in lottery tickets. The most of this 
money, of course, was lost. 

Men not only lose their own money in this way, but 
that of their employers and even trust funds. When a 



156 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

celebrated bank in this country failed it was found that 
the officers had expended the embezzled funds in lottery 
tickets and, of course, lost. A Boston clerk took $18,- 
000 of his employer's money and spent it in this way. 
The money lost in gambling in our city would build 
many a cozy and beautiful cottage and furnish it, too. 

This gambling is a destroyer of human life. After a 
lottery in England there were fifty suicides of those who 
had held unlucky numbers. At the great gambling cen- 
ters, suicides are so common that the game is not long 
delayed — the blood is washed up and everything goes on 
as before. In the city of Denver, on the evening of No- 
vember 14, Charles E. Henry, a young gambler nineteen 
years of age, took the life of a young woman. I cannot 
explain it to you, but it is a fact that the gambler places 
a very low estimate on human life. But by gaming, 
character is lost. Money and physical life are the less 
valuable, but character is all. The clerk becomes a thief 
by this fascination and steals from his employer ; he goes 
from bad to worse. I know this to be a fact that men 
who gamble go in droves to the home of the lost woman. 

One vice leads to another, till all that was good and 
pure is lost. And, you see my point now, the soul itself 
is the priceless stake that is lost. Do you see the price 
the gambler pays ? The disposition to do honest work, 
hard earned or inherited money, physical life, character, 
the immortal soul. You ask for the cure. Let our 
present law on this vice be enforced and be continued to 
be enforced. " Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." 



GAMBLING. 157 

Let us all content ourselves with safe ways of making a 
living, and choose enjoyments that have no sting. Let 
us make what we have. "Pluck is a hero, but luck is a 
fool." Let us stick to straight, honest lines of business. 
Let us pay for our churches with the tithes we owe 
God — 'tis not a gift, but a debt due him. And let it not 
be said of any of us who profess the name of Jesus that 
we taught one soul this destroying vice. Let no one say : 
" I was introduced to a game of chance in your parlor, 
and from that I went on and down till I lost money, 
character and soul." Shun the very appearance of evil. 
Ask God for a pure heart. 




The 3/tethedists. 



ZjJOU will find my text in I Peter, ii, 9: "But ye arc 
2^ a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy 
nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the 
praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness unto 
His marvelous light." 

At the beginning of this conference year I have a few 
words to say of our own church. I find much to admire 
in the origin, history and characteristics of our people. 
In 1739 a few persons came to Mr. AVesley in London. 
They were convicted of sin, and were groaning for re- 
demption. They had one great desire — to flee from the 
wrath to come. They spent every Thursday evening in 
prayer and religious conversation. They have been de- 
fined as " a company of men having the form and seek- 
ing the power of Godliness, united in order to pray 
together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to 
watch over one another in love, that they might help 
each other to work out their salvation." This little 
company has grown to be a mighty host. In 1880 more 
than 12,000,000 of persons received religious instruction 
in Methodist churches. The Methodist church in Amer- 
ica now numbers 5,000,000 members, and is 



THE METHODISTS. 159 

more rapidly than ever before. We are now building 
three churches a day in this country, and we shall raise 
this year $1,000,000 for missions from collections only. 
We cannot but admire the peculiarities of Methodism. 
We are catholic, yet not Eornan. We have bishops, yet 
no hierarchy. We have sacraments, but reject the 
doctrine of sacramental grace. We have ordinations 
without divine right. We are Presbyterian, yet not 
Calvanistic. We give our ministry a place of com- 
mand, yet protect our churches against tyranny. We 
maintain the independence of the local churches, and 
yet are not Congregationalists. We permit emersion, 
yet are not Baptists. We baptize children but deny 
baptismal regeneration. We have a liturgy, and yet en- 
courage the spontaneous expression of prayer and praise. 
We claim to follow the spirit, and yet are not Quakers. 
We hold that all may be saved, and yet we are not Uni- 
versalists. We believe we stand on the doctrine of the 
bible — if a man is going to stand he must have some- 
thing to stand on. 

Look at some of the great doctrines we get out of the 
word: "The awful sinfulness of the human heart." 
" The atonement through Jesus," " Eegeneration," 
u The witness of the spirit," " Heart purity," " Ever- 
lasting happiness for the righteous and everlasting pun- 
ishment for the finally unrepentant." 

These doctrines will repel the bourbon, the epicurean, 
the intellectual bigot and the aristocrat in heart and 
.culture, but they will attract those who hunger and 



100 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

thirst after righteousness. The Catholic spirit of John 
Wesley should still he ours. He says: "I desire to 
have a league offensive and defensive with every soldier 
of Christ. We have only one faith, one hope, and one 
Lord, but are directly engaged in one warfare." He 
says further, " One circumstance more is quite peculiar 
to the people called Methodists ; that is, the terms upon 
which any person may be admitted into their society — 
one condition only is required — a real desire to save 
their souls." Mr. Wesley wrote this less than three 
years before he died. 

From our very beginning we have been noted for a 
burning zeal. Methodism is religion in earnest. The 
true Christian is as full of zeal for Christ as Marshal 
Mirrah of France was for his country. We are a happy 
people, too. When the Methodist feels at all, he feels 
good. Go into an old fashioned love feast and see this 
demonstrated. 

The church has produced a long line of illustrious 
men. John Wesley, John Fletcher, George Whitfield, 
Adam Clark, John Nelson, Thomas Walsh, l L Francis 
Asbury, Mathew Simpson, and scores of others, known 
and loved, and honored in every quarter of the globe. 
We have been wonderfully used of God as a church. 

We are now, as to membership, 5,000,000 strong. 
We have been the church of the common people. God 
has used this branch to inspire and quicken all the other 
churches, and if you do not believe it I can give you the 
facts. We have taken a prominent part in the great 



THE METHODISTS. 161 

work of Christian education. Methodism was bom in 
Oxford university; and from the beginning has put forth 
her utmost efforts to foster general education as well as 
the culture of the academy and of the higher institu- 
tions of learning. We have now one hundred such in- 
stitutions, with property valued at $8,000,000. 

God has used his church in helping the people to a 
pure literature. Our book concern began a business 
with a capital of $600; to-day it nets more than $1,500,- 
000. Some curse this company of Christians, but we 
can say with the sainted Hester Ann Eodgers, " I have 
reason to bless God through all eternity, that I ever 
joined the Methodists." 

Having now considered our origin and character- 
istics, we offer some words of counsel. We have been 
criticised a good deal in this city. One of our own 
bishops came here a few years ago and said: "Method- 
ism in Omaha, is a stench." But we are doing better 
of late. We have thirteen Methodist churches, English 
and foreigners combined, in this city, and we are preach- 
ing to full houses, and the Holy Ghost is using the word. 
I urge all Methodists in this city to come into the 
church. Get your letters out of your pockets and out 
of your old trunks, and take a hand now in lighting the 
devil. Do not wait for the church to get on top of the 
wave, but come now when we need another hand at the 
oar. Do not hang around and wait for somebody to 
speak to you or to call on your wife, but fall into line, 
and get ready for business. Think of standing off till 
some one speaks to you, while men are going to hell. 



162 SHOTS FR03I THE PULPIT. 

I rather like the spirit of that old woman who, when 
the hoys in blue were marching past her door to battle, 
picked up her broom and joined tliem saying, "I will 
at least show which side I am on." 

Then, when once you are in your church home, 
keep, but do not mend the rules. Don't dance and play 
cards ; don't swear and drink whiskey. I will not dis- 
cuss this point — if you want to do these things, don't 
come into any church — don't lumber up any church 
record. At the beginning ot this new church year let 
us fall into the old time ways of Methodism. Let us 
kneel when we pray and when the preacher says, "let 
all the people sing" — let us stand up and sing. I don't 
delegate my singing to any choir, and I advise you not 
to. The Methodists used to sing so that all England 
heard. In the name of God, have we forgotten how? 
Have three books in your possession this year — the bible 
the church hymnal, and the discipline; and take your 
church paper. Be worth something to the church this 
year. A good many church members are very like that 
horse a man once sold. After the sale the farmer who 
owned him told the purchaser he had only two faults; 
one was, he was hard to catch, and the other was, he 
wasn't worth anything when you had caught him. 

A good many of you have been Methodists since you 
came to the town but you haven't done much at it. 
AVe have a grand origin and a splendid history, but I tell 
you, you will have to make your own record. " The 
pedigree is worthless if the boss can't trot." 



THE METHODISTS. 1<>3 

Be loving and peacable this year. Let ns liave 
nothing to do this year but to save souls. Methodists 
have a good deal of fight in them, to the square inch. 
But the days of controversy are nearly over. Let us 
point men to Jesus. Bishop Ames used to. say that 
sometimes two very bad devils got into the church — the 
choir-devil and the church-location devil, and some of 
us know that there are many more devils than these. 
Do not let any of them get you this year. Let us pray 
for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without this we 
are helpless and can do nothing, but with the spirit's 
power we can work mightily for God. Oh! what an 
honor to be used of the Holy Ghost. In conclusion I 
would say, this is my last year in the Seward street 
church. God has helped us do good in the past. Let 
us by divine aid do the best work this year that we have 
ever clone. We ought to clo our best. We see the 
needs of men as we never saw them before. We know 
ourselves and God, better. Last year we received on 
an average of four members every Sabbath. God help 
us to do more this year. Let us pray that the spiritual 
body may be built up, and that scores of sinners may be 
brought to God. 

For this let us believe and pray and work. Amen. 




Trie ^alue of a Trade. 



/£)OTS, xviii, 3: " For by their occupation they were 
J* tent makers." I address this sermon to hoys on the 
value of a trade. 

Our American boys of the present are not learning 
trades. Of the scores of boys whom I know personally, 
only two are learning trades. Nor are these boys in 
school either. In many instances they are lounging 
about stores and offices or they spend the live long day 
in play. 

There are reasons for this state of things. The parents 
do not see to it that their sons understand some trade or 
business. In my judgment no greater mistake can be. 
To permit a boy to go out into the world without putting 
something in his hand with which to win his way, is, to 
say the least, extremely cruel. The Jews taught their 
sons two things, viz, a trade and the Ten Command- 
ments. It passed for a sign of bad bringing up when a 
father did not teach his son a trade. 

Again, the boy himself, in many cases is wholly indif- 
ferent to the subject of self-support. He paints the fu- 
ture in golden colors. He has no doubt but that he can 
make money by a single turn of the wheel of fortune. 
He will not work even for a short time, for small wages. 
He wants to begin where his father left off, and he learns 
when it is too late, that boys do not always know what 



THE VALUE OF A TRADE. 1G5 

is best for them. The result of all this is that our sous 
are growing up iu idleuess. They are becoming, in many 
cases, the slaves of appetite aud passion. Either they 
are going into the already overcrowded professions of law 
and medicine, or they must submit to do unskilled work 
for which they receive poor pay. Another outcome is 
that we are compelled to send to the Old World for 
trained minds and skillful hands to do our finest work. 
For many years our manufactories have been sending to 
Belgium and Holland for workmen. A very estimable 
lady told me that in 1879 she visited the headquarters of 
the Harbor and Coast Survey iu New York city, and she 
found that all the skilled draughtsmen, at that time em- 
ployed, were foreigners — Frenchmen and Germans. The 
salaries of these men ranged from $4,000 to $5,000 a 
year. The son of the superintendent, then a lad of four- 
teen years, came in aud worked a part of each clay, for 
which he received a handsome compensation. Very 
many of our best florists are men of foreign birth. 

Allow me to state a few reasons why boys should learn 
a trade. First, because a trade is one of the best safe- 
guards against sin. A boy who has something to do will 
not be apt to get into trouble, but a healthy boy without 
employment is much like a pup — sure to be in mischief. 
Again, a good trade is one of the surest and best means 
of self-support, and self-support is one of the first things 
we should attend to. With a trade you can earn good 
wages and get steady employment. In my own life, I 
have many times seen the advantage the tradesman has 
over the clay laborer. 



16G SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

When I was nineteen years old I left my father's farm 
for the University. I spent three years in preparatory 
studies and four years in the Collegiate course. I only 
had five dollars to start with and had to earn my own 
way as best I could. I could only make fifteen cents an 
hour, while my classmates who knew how to work on 
wood, or hang paper or, indeed, who had any useful trade 
could earn twice as much as I could. Then, when vaca- 
tion came, they picked up their tools, and with ease 
earned most excellent wages, while I went to the harvest 
field and sold my muscle to the highest bidder. 

Again, it is most honorable to have a trade. Jesus was 
a carpenter, Paul was a tent-maker — hear his words, 
" These hands have ministered to my necessities and to 
them that are with me." 

Hugh Miller was a stone mason, Benjamin Franklin 
was a printer, Elihu Burrett was a blacksmith and An- 
drew Jackson was a tailor. 

I look upon a trade as every whit as honorable as a 
profession. When shall we come to understand that it 
is not the business that makes the man, but the man 
that makes the business. What the man is, not what 
he does, determines his standing. 

Learn a trade — then if you wish to choose a profes- 
sion afterward, your trade will be a helpful stepping 
stone to it, or it will be your support if for any reason it 
is best for you to leave the learned profession. 

Work hard at your trade. " Seest thou a man dili- 
gent in his business ? he shall stand before kings ; he 
shall not stand before mean men." 



Selli 



Tig ^Ui. 



EXESIS, xxv, 33: "And he sold his birthright 
unto Jacob." 

Our subject to-night is " Selling the Birthright." 

I will first try to tell you the story of the text as 
simply and as plainly as I can. 

Esau and Jacob were the sons of Isaac and Eebekah. 
The boys did not get along very well. The first thing 
that Jacob did when he came into the world was to grab 
hold of his brother's heel. Esau being the elder had cer- 
tain rights and privileges which were distinctly his until 
he sold or gave them away. Jacob was a sharper. His 
whole life, till his nature was changed, was a tissue of 
cunning and deception. These principles were instilled 
into him by his mother, whose regard for truth and 
righteousness appears to have been very superficial. 
These twin boys stayed at home with their father and 
mother until theywere more than fifty years old. Boys 
did not leave home then to make their fortune in the 
west when they had reached their tenth birthday. 

One day Esau came in from the field very faint. He 
had been working or hunting and was completely ex- 
hausted. Jacob had been trying his hand at cooking and 



108 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Lad made same red pottage. Esau asked his brother for 
some of this food. Jacob said, "I will give you some 
pottage for your birthright." Esau said, "All right, Jam 
nearly dead with hunger, and I don't know that my 
birthright will ever do me any good, and you can have it. 
]STow give me something to eat." And so the trade was 
made then and tliere. Now I want you to look a mo- 
ment at the prize which Esau sold and what he realized 
from it — the consideration, as it would be called to-day. 

When he sold his birthright he sold : 

His authority and superiority over the rest of the 
family. 

A double portion of the paternal inheritance. 

The special benediction of the father. 

And the priesthood, previous to its establishment in 
the family of Aaron. 

Now see what he got: A mess of lentiles cooked like 
beans, making a pottage of a chocolate color. He got 
a second-rate meal for a most splendid inheritance. 

Our opinion is that Esan had no good excuse for mak- 
ing such a trade as that. He was hungry and tired, but 
he was old enough to know better. You join me in say- 
ing that Esau, to say the least, "sold out cheap." Some 
of you might go so far as to say he was a fool; and while 
you are saying this, I remark, that men are doing the 
very same thing to-day — they are selling their birth- 
right. I believe that man was born to fabulous wealth, 
and though he throws away those riches for nothing, an 
easy method of getting them back is put within his 



SELLING OUT. 169 

grasp, for Isaiah, vii, 3, says, "Ye have sold yourselves 
for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without money." 

If you could have a record of the doings of every day 
of those all about you, you would see that Esau was not 
dead yet, but was acting his part right along. Let me 
give you some facts to prove this. A few years ago a 
promising young lawyer in the state of Michigan was 
looked upon as a prominent candidate for governor; but 
he took to strong drink and ere long became a common 
sot. His wife and children were supported by public 
charity and he was only tolerated because of what he 
had been. 

See what he sold — his fine appearance, good position, 
highest hopes, prosperity of his family, his own self-re- 
spect and manhood. What did he get? The tempo- 
rary pleasures of drink, shattered health, ruined charac- 
ter and lost soul. 

Thirty years ago in this country a Frenchman took to 
drinking. A little boy warned him of the evil, but he 
scorned the child's words. One day this man placed 
both hands over his stomach and spoke the name of 
Jesus twice. This was the beginning of the delirium tre- 
mens. He recovered. Again he drank. He died 
shrieking at the devils peering out of the walls at him. 
He sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. 

A gentleman from the central part of the city told me 
this story of his grandfather : He was one of the sol- 
diers of Xapoleon and was worth $100,000. He suffer- 
ed himself to <zet in to the clutches of a bad woman and 



170 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

she drew on him heavily for money. Thus, this once 
kind hearted man turned into a demon. He was not 
only untrue to his home, but he drank often and deeply. 
He obliged his two little girls to work in the barn; and 
would strike and kick them. He threw his wife down 
stairs. He took an axe, while intoxicated, and broke 
the furniture. His family left him, and he died alone 
and friendless — sold out for a mess of pottage. 

These awful tragedies are happening all around us. 
Take one instance, which had its beginning in our own 
state. Harry King worked for Bowmau at Ohadron. 
Bowman sent King to Kansas to do a piece of work. 
Bowman alienated the affections of King's wife. After 
two years had passed, and only a few weeks ago, these 
men met at Douglas, Wyo. King told Bowman what 
lie had done and shot him dead. Was that not another 
case of selling his birthright? Some may say, " I think 
such things ought uot to be told here." If I stand with- 
in these walls and do not warn the people, I am guilty of 
their blood. 

There are thousands of these cases all about us; men 
selling out the grandest opportunities of earth and 
heaven for what turns to ashes in their mouths. 

You ask, " How can 1 help it?" " Do not do it," I 
reply. Don't trade. When Jacob comes up and asks 
you to trade your inheirtance for a mess of pottage, say 
no, I thank you, my temptations are great, but I won't 
sell out. 

And if it be that you have sold out, I exhort you to 



SELLING OUT. 171 

lay claim to the redemption purchased by Jesus — " Ye 
have sold yourselves for naught, and ye shall be re- 
deemed without money." God has help for those who 
are off the track. 

A young man who is a member of the Episcopal 
church, has lately told me how he overcame a sinful 
habit. He broke off the habit at the request of his dying 
sister. Again he became addicted to the sin by the en- 
ticement of a friend. His slavery was worse than be- 
fore. He asked a godly man to pray for him, and he 
prayed earnestly himself. The appetite was gone, and 
has not yet returned. 

Though you have sold your inheritance, ask God, and 
use every power you possess and he will make you rich. 

A young lawyer fell. He was rescued twice by the 
ladies of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 
The third time he fell and the third time was picked up. 
He reformed, he read law and has not drank for fifteen 
years. He is now the auditor of one of the states of 
this union. 

If you have sold out I counsel you to buy back your 
lost possessions. "Ye were not redeemed with corrup- 
tible things such as gold and silver, but with the precious 
blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without 
spot." 



The Curse and the (Lure. 



t^RO VERBS, xxiii, 31 and 32 : " Look not thou upon 
^ the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in 
the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it 
biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." 

I take as my subject to-night, "Our City's Curse and 
its Cure." 

I preach this sermon, by request, to "The Metropolitan 
Prohibitiou Club." You number one hundred strong. 
You represent the different lines of professional business 
and mechanical life. I am told that you are men of ideas, 
of pluck and of push. As I look into your faces I see 
the young man with everything before him. I see the 
strong man in his prime with both hands a-liold of the 
world's work. I see the old man with gray hair, but 
with fire in his soul. 

If anyone should ask me who you are I would point to 
you and say "These men are the sworn enemies of rum." 
I am told that Hanibal, the great general, had only one 
passion — hatred to Home, and all the glowing enthusiasm 
of his soul, all the great virtues of his character, all the 
wonderful fertility of his mind were concentrated in this 
hatred. You are growing this hatred for rum. 



THE CURSE AND THE CURE. 175 

When we consider the present make-up of society it is 
very natural that you should be called radicals and 
fanatics, and you are called by these names. But as I 
look up your history I do not wonder that you are radical. 
Some of you have suffered in a business way from strong 
drink. Others of your number have been slaves to the 
appetite, and still others of your body have seen those 
under its power who were as dear to you as life itself. 

You have a purpose in your organization. It is re- 
freshing to see a man or body of men with an object 
— an object worthy of themselves. It is your conviction 
that the rum traffic should go. That the drink custom 
should not be regulated but annihilated — wiped from the 
face of God's earth. You believe that the drink custom 
is a mad dog which has bitten many, and now, in our 
city, there are literally hundreds of these raging curs 
foaming at the mouth and hiding at every corner ready 
to spring out upon the passer by. 

The officers and license board of the city say: "We 
will give you $1,000 toward the education of your chil- 
dren, for everyone of these mad dogs you permit in the 
city," but you raise your voice to a scream of terror and 
shout, "Away with this wholesale murder in our streets !" 
You believe the proper place to curtail a bad business is 
just back of its ears. Your purpose is not only to hold 
this belief but to advocate it. You say, "The truth we 
have found is worthy the telling." 

Again you propose the ballot as the small but mighty 
missile against the rum traffic. You believe that the 



174 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

"ballot box" is "The ark of the covenant" for the 
American citizen. You believe that these little pieces 
of white paper, dropped by clean and honest hands, are 
, more potent than the prayers of saints or the tramp of 
armies. The "Kingliest act of freedom is the freeman's 
vote." When Napoleon moved southward on his noted 
but disastrous march from Moscow, a single snowtiake 
descended through the cold still air. Alone, it might 
not have bent the plume that quivered on the soldier's 
helmet. But lo! a second snowrlake comes as noiselessly 
as the first, then a third, a fourth, until emperor and 
common soldiers alike knew that their fate was sealed. 
So these little white ballots will yet strike terror to 
the hearts of the lovers of rum; for thousands of men 
in this country have made up their minds that they will 
vote as they pray. 

And you aim also to unify and crystalize the temper- 
ance working force. You know well that all over this 
land are thousands of true men who believe with you, 
and you say to then: "Come join our ranks." 

" United we stand, divided we fall." You would take 
every strong arm in this city and teach it to fight the 
worst enemy the race ever had. 

I am free to say I like you, I like your principle. I 
take you by the hand and call you brothers. There are 
certainly some preachers who are afraid to speak out to- 
day. Because if they speak out on this question they 
will lose their heads. The worst thing that Bobert 
Ingersoll says of the preacher is that "he is an owl 



THE CURSE AND THE ( IRE. 175 

sitting in a dead tree, hooting at a lost world." But I 
say a harder thing when I say there is many a preacher 
to-day in the pulpit who dares not speak his thoughts on 
the drink custom. But God does like a plucky preacher 
and men like such a one too. 

A Methodist preacher has no excuse if he does not 
speak out. You see if it gets too hot for him in one 
place, and somebody does not shoot him, the Methodist 
machine picks him up and places him in another station. 
I hope more preachers will do as Peter Cartwright did 
when he was preaching on profanity and Andrew Jack- 
sou came into the church. Some man in the pulpit said 
softly, "Don't bear down too heavy on the swearers, 
Old Hickory is in the congregation and some times he is 
profane." "Well," said Peter Cartwright, "Andrew Jack- 
son will go to hell like any common sinner if he don't 
stop swearing." Old Hickory said at the close of the 
sermon, "I wish I had a regiment of soldiers as brave 
as that preacher." I will tell you why I endorse you and 
why I shall pray for you: 

You are making war against the meanest business on 
earth. This text says the drink custom is a serpent 
that bites and an adder that stings. We believe that 
this custom is the fruitful mother of impurity and crime. 
It murders the peace and industry of the country, and 
converts happy, industrious homes into hovels of poverty 
and misery. On account of drink, anxious wives and 
mothers watch and pray in tears, and with desolate 
hearts watch for the home coming of lost and ruined 



170 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

loved ones. The most eloquent orator Ameiica hasever 
produced says: "From the time the liquor issues from 
coiled and poisonous worm in the distillery until it 
empties into the hell of death, dishonor and crime, it 
demoralizes everybody that touches it. Intemperance 
cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in its strength, 
and old age in its weakness. It defames benevolence, 
hates love, scorns virtue and slanders innocence, it 
is the sum of all villainies, the father of all crime, the 
mother of abominations, the devil's best friend and God's 
worst enemy." 

These are the words of a man outside of the church 
and all men know they are true. 

Surely you ought to have the benediction of all, for 
you oppose the curse of the nation and the common loe 
of man. 

This drink custom is the blight and curse of our city 
and if you could, you would wipe it out. We have about 
two hundred saloons in Omaha. This town is the very 
hot bed of whisky. There is only one decent saloon 
and that is a temperance saloon. 

AVe have the so-called " first-class" saloons in our 
city; you will find them on Douglas and Farnam streets. 
What a mirror that is behind the bartender; what 
handsome pictures of landscape and animal lite adorn 
the walls. Everything that taste can devise and money 
can buy is used to attract the man. These are the dan- 
gerous places — where sin puts on her dress of beauty 
and says: "See how my votaries live!" These are the 



THE CURSE AND THE CUKE. 177 

places where a man drinks as long as be has plenty of 
money and before he gets too much bloated and besot- 
ed. But soou he is kicked out and goes to the hell of 
lower grade. 

During this hot weather the beer gardens are doing a 
slashing business. Perhaps some of you have visited 
them. Here is one where the elite of the city are found 
during these sultry evenings. The enclosure is a large 
one; the orchestra furnishes music worth a better cause. 
Groups of laughing, talking, merry people sit at the 
round tables. " Everybody and his grandmother are 
there." Lawyers, doctors, merchants; the young man 
and the man with gray hair. The professed Christian 
and the sinners — all are here; 500 people drink everything 
from light wines to forty-rod whisky. Americans are 
never very particular what they drink, so it is not water. 

The Frenchman takes wines, the German takes beer, 
the Scotchman takes ale, the Irishman takes whiskey, 
but the American takes anything he can lay his hands 
on. That is the way the people of Omaha do in the 
beer gardens. 

At one of the beer gardens on south Thirteenth street, 
they told me that, on Sunday night, they sell as many 
as eleven kegs of beer and other drinks in proportion. 
And the tired waiter, long after midnight, sinks down on 
his cot to sleep, only to be awakened at five next morn- 
ing, when the drinking begins again. 

We have saloons for the workingman, for the sun- 
browned toilers, for the men of the middle class, and here 



178 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

let me say these are the most valuable men in the city. 
God loves the men whose faces are kissed with the sun- 
shine and whose clothes are soiled with brick dust and 
mortar. I only pray that they may be honest and sober 
and pure. But look what snares are set for their feet. 
In these saloons you will see the tables for billiards and 
cards. Here is a musical instrument which cost the 
owner $2,000. The pictures are not fine, but they im- 
press the men who see them. 

The low down saloon is often a single small room. It 
is full of men and the men are full. Everybody talks 
loud and would give all his old clothes to get into a 
fight. Every kind of evil is born here. There is one of 
these saloons in our city that takes a man and finishes 
him on the grounds. It is prepared to give him a diplo- 
ma in vice and to punish him in addition. It is one of 
the best arranged places in the city in its line. The man 
is first taken into the saloon and made beastly drunk, 
then he is shown upstairs into the gambling hell where? 
he is robbed, and then the officer throws the poor wretch 
into the jail which is situated in the rear of the estab- 
lishment. I have always thought that house was well 
managed. 

The effects of dram drinking brand the custom as our 
city's curse. 

I know a man who gets dead drunk. His wife, a deli- 
cate woman, supports him by taking in sewing and wash- 
ing, and he pays for drink out of the money earned by 
his little son by the hardest and most slavish toil. 



THE CURSE AND THE CURE. 179 

I am acquainted with another man who was a fine 
salesman a few months ago, but he took to drink. His 
employer told him that he would gladly give him $100 a 
month if he would leave drink alone. He does so for 
one month and draws the promised money, but he falls 
again and goes down lower and lower until friends give 
bread to the drunkard and his wife. 

The other day I met a friend on the street. He was 
hungry and clothed in rags. He had not slept in a bed 
for many nights, and he had the look of despair on his 
face. I asked him what had brought him to such a 
state of wretchedness. He replied, "The drink." Breth- 
ren, I can't tell you all I known — you would stop your 
ears and tell me to be silent. But God knows this drink 
is our city's curse. 

Again, I endorse you with all my heart because yon 
are the advocates of the great remedy. Yon believe in 
the enforcement of law. No man or set of men would be 
more rejoiced to see the present laws rigidly enforced 
than yourselves. But you say, " We have in mind and 
heart a more thorough remedy." Talk about regulating 
the saloon business, when the drinker has lost his will 
and the seller has lost his conscience. You might as 
well try to regulate a volcano belching out the stream of 
red-hot death upon your home. You might as well try 
to regulate the regions of the damned as to regulate the 
drink custom. 

Your remedy is the one God sanctions. God says, 
" Don't look at it, don't touch it — it is an adder that will 
sting you to death." 



ISO SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Your remedy lias worked practically and will do so. 
The prohibition sentiment is growing all over our land. 
Prohibition has already wrought wonders. Daily it is 
conquering enemies and winning hosts of friends. Voices 
from Maine and Georgia, Kansas and Iowa, testify with 
columns of figures and scores of stubborn facts, that pro- 
hibition does prohibit. Take the city of Atlanta for an 
example. This is a city of ten thousand people. Pro- 
hibition proposed mighty changes. Over 100 business 
houses were to be closed; 500 men were to be forced to 
give up a chosen employment. The city treasury was to 
be left with $40,000 less revenue. Trade, amounting 
annually to millions, was to be turned away from the 
city. Many large business houses were to be left un- 
rentecl. The most spirited and determined opposition 
was brought to bear against the movement. 

A reliable writer says, "It is twelve months since the 
law went into effect and look at the results: Prohibition 
in this city does prohibit. The city has not been in- 
jured financially. According to the assessor's books pro- 
perty in the city has increased in value over two mil- 
lions. Taxes have not increased. Five new banks have 
been added. Four new railroads have come to us, and 
manufacturing establishments have received new life. 
Store rooms in which the liquor traffic was conducted 
.■are not vacant but are now occupied by other lines of 
trade. Workingmen, who formerly spent a great part of 
their earning for liquor, now spend it in food and clothes 
for their families. More people ride on the street cars. 



THE CURSE AND THE CUKE. L81 

More children go to the public schools. More people at- 
tend church, and there is very little drinking in the city." 

These are the words of the Atlanta Weekly Constitu- 
tion, a paper that once opposed prohibition. 

The principles you advocate are right and they are 
practical. Go on and make no apologies to men. 

In conclusion I would say: See to it that good men 
all over our city are invited and urged to join you in 
your work. May " the little one become a thousand," is 
my prayer. 

Do all you can for the enforcement of the present 
laws. Fight the devil at short range, but keep the aboli- 
tion ever in view. Eemember that victory will crown 
your efforts. 

•'Right forever on the scaffold, 
Wrong forever on the throne, 
But the scaffold sways the future, 
And behind the dark unknown, 
Standeth God amid the shadows 
Keeping watch above His own ." 

The papers are coming over on your side. The Voice 
in New York has a million dollars at its back, and this 
is your paper. 

The highest dignitaries of the church say: "God bless 
the prohibition movement." The church that in the 
days of the rebellion sent the most nurses to the hospi- 
tal and the most soldiers to the field is praying for you. 

Don't forget that the better day is coming. Already 
you can see the red light of the morning. 



182 



SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 



Brethren, it is in the "promises" and nothing can 
stay it. 

"The long black wings of retreating night go hustling 
down the past; the rosy wings of morning come sweep- 
ing up the future and the shouts of angels and of men 
usher in the advancing day." 

" Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, 

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath is stored. 
He has loosed the fateful lightenings of his terrible swift sword ; 
His truth is marching on. 

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel : 

As ye deal with My contemners so with you My grace shall deal ; 

Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel ; 
Since god is marching on." 



v^^ 




'Will it Tay 



|Y subject for this sermon is, "Will it pay?" and we 
choose our text from I Timothy, iv, 8: "But God- 
liness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of 
the life that now is and of that which is to come." 
This question, "Will it pay?" is asked in every line of 
human effort. The young man asks it when he is 
considering whether he shall go to college or not, when 
he chooses his profession, and when he invests his few 
hard earned dollars. At every step, if he be wise, he 
stops and thinks and asks, "Will it pay?" Men before 
me this evening are asking this question concerning the 
religion of Jesus, " Will it pay ?" This text says godli- 
ness pays in two worlds. This message says to you to- 
day, You can not lose. You have got the dead open- 
and-shut on it. You are bound to make if you invest." 
Let us see if this is so. God says it pays in this life, 
and there is no mistake about this statement in Timothy, 
for Jesus himself says, He will give His followers an 
hundred fold in this present time. 

Let us look at this question squarely. Take a note of 
the profit. Godliness will save you from disgrace. 
" The path of the just is as a shining light which shineth 



184 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

more and more unto the perfect day.'' Look about you. 
How many men fall into disgrace, but among all the 
number not one true genuine Christian. A prominent 
lawyer in this state said: "During my term as district 
attorney I sent many a man over the road, but I never 
sent a Christian." Mark this. Here is well defined pro- 
fit for the follower of Jesus — no disgrace, no infamy 
sticking to the life from the cradle to the grave. 

Again, godliness possessed in the soul and lived out in 
the life will pay you financially. God says : " Trust in 
the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land 
and verily thou shalt be fed." One writer in the divine 
word says: "I have been young and now am old, yet I 
have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging- 
bread." The whole tendency of sin is toward poverty 
and the whole tendency of righteousness is toward 
wealth. A man rose lately in a gospel meeting in one of 
our eastern cities. He was well dressed and had a thrif- 
ty look. He said at that meeting : " You do not know 
me. I was converted here some months ago. Then 
I was in rags and had no money. Now you see I have 
good clothes and I have $5 for the collection to-day." 

A poor, wretched man was converted in this city lately. 
In a few weeks he came back wearing a good overcoat, 
and when he gave in his testimony he wrapped his new, 
warm coat about him and said, " See what religion will 
do for a man." Friday, at the noon prayer meeting a 
man said : " A year ago I was a Christian, I had good 
clothes, money and friends. I got into bad company, 



WILL IT PAY. 185 

fell into sin, and now I am in rags and have no money." 
That's the old story. Sin will bring a man to a crust of 
bread, but righteousness will cause him to sit down at 
his father's table " where there is bread enough and to 
spare." The great reason why so many men in this city 
are financially ruined is because they have served the 
devil. 

Godliness will pay you in the health line. Do you 
know why there are so many aching heads and disfigured 
faces, and broken constitutions, all around here % These 
are the servants of the devil. In many cases sickness is 
a sin. I met a man the other day with an awful looking 
face, and as I looked at him I said, I know where you did 
not get that face — you did not get it in a prayer meeting. 
Would the race not be handsome if they kept on their 
knees 1 

Godliness will insure you an enviable place in the 
hearts of men. "The memory of the just is blessed, but 
the name of the wicked shall rot." Do you know that 
the man who works for the wealth or honor of this 
world is quickly forgotten. Take two examples from an 
article in one of our daily papers of a recent date. The 
author says : " Walk through the corridors of the Fifth 
Avenue hotel, you will see many men whom the crowd 
have left. There sits Mahone, ex-senator from Virginia. 
Five years ago he was one of the most courted men of 
his state. He was the lion of the Senate, and when he 
came to New York, reporters kept at his heels to get 'an 
expression of opiuion' from him. He was petted like a 



1SG SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

child. Xow he is laid out in political death. He sits 
alone by the hour." Ex-governor Sprague, of Rhode 
Island, is another example. Twenty-five years ago he 
was the idol of his state. He was worth millions of 
money and lived in a palace fit for a king. He married 
Kate Chase, the most beautiful woman of her day. All 
the world seemed to be at his feet. But his fortune was 
swept away. His beautiful wife went forth from his 
palace. He tumbled from an Alpine height of greatness 
to the lowest abyss of despair. To-day he is a little, old, 
blear-eyed man, without friends or fortune. The other 
day, he stood at the Astor house bar and gulped down 
a glass of whiskey, that some one else paid for, and 
seemed thankful that he was yet alive. 

The good are never left as these men are whom I have 
mentioned. The good man's wealth is not controlled by 
the crowd. It is enshrined in his heart. His friends re- 
member and love him, nob for what he has, but for what 
he is. The only immortality on earth, that bad men 
have, is due to the fact that their names are associated 
with the good. 

Godliness will insure to you absolute safety. " Who 
shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good ?" 
"A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at 
thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee." Sal- 
vation will be to you a coat of mail in the battle of life. 

Again, our Father promises "the life which is to 
come." Godliness reaches out with her rewards to the 
life beyond the grave. 



WILL IT PAY. 187 

Jesus looked on every earthly thing in its bearing on the 
great hereafter, and lie made it our privilege to do the 
same. We ought to ask with reference to every import- 
ant step, " How will this affect my interest in eternity?" 

Godliness will give us an entrance into heaven. Think, 
if you can, what that means — an eternity in the happiest 
and most beautiful place in the universe, and having for 
your companions the purest spirits of all ages. And 
above all we shall behold the face of Jesus. Surely god- 
liness will pay for two worlds. 




©ur ©uties at Christmas Time. 



1 WILL take two texts for my sermon, this Christmas- 
■* morning: Matt, xvi, 10 : "Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God," and Eomans xv, 1: "We then 
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, 
and not to please ourselves." 

Our subject this morning is, " Our duties at Christ- 
mas Time." This text takes for granted the greatest 
fact in the universe — namely, that " Jesus has come." 
The birth of Jesus is now an axiom. And bending to 
listen again this morning we can hear that sweetest of 
all anthems, sung by the augel choir, in the long ago, 
" Peace on earth and good will to men." This old world 
is still in love with the music of Bethlehem. Kings and 
peasants inquire, "Where can we find Him?" Wise 
men open their treasures and give to him the most beau- 
tiful and costly. The child Jesus is our Eedeemer and 
the Saviour of the world. 

The ablest preachers on earth will tell the story of 
His coming. Let us be content to know our Lord has 
come. And then to find out what we ought to do about 
it. 



OUR DUTIES AT CHRISTMAS TIME. 189 

Our text tells us, acknowledge Him — confess Hiin. 
I like Peter for bis frank, open confession : " Thou art 
the Christ, the son of the living God." That is what 
Jesus wants from the whole world, this Christmas morn- 
ing. This is what he came for, to pay the penalty of 
my sin and to set my feet on the road to heaven. But 
he came to give me the privilege of saying, " My Lord 
and my God." This world is full of men who believe, 
but they have not said, "Thou art the Christ, the son of 
the living God." 

I made an open confession of Jesus at 10 years of age? 
and if I had it to do again I would begin sooner. Make a 
confession of Jesus this Christmas day and he will re- 
ceive you. 

Then, being strong in Jesus ourselves, our text tells 
us we can help bear the burdens of others. The master 
tells us we are not to please ourselves. The most un- 
happy people in this city to-day are those who have put 
in all their time trying to please themselves. But self is 
an egotistical and selfish old bear who will not be pleased. 

I know some people in this town who are more than 
commonly happy this Christmas day because they have 
borne the burdens of others. 

God put it into the hearts of certain newspaper men 
in our city to take the part of poor children. What 
pleas they made. They spoke to audiences of thousands. 

Their words touched our hearts and we dropped a 
short letter to the public. Noble hearted men in our 
church came to our aid. God put it into the hearts of 



190 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

rich and poor to make poor children happy. One gentle- 
man living near us said, "Go to the grocery store and 
get $5 worth of provisions for the poor," and he sent 
other things as well, to make the unfortunate glad. A 
leading hatter on Fifteenth street sent us money, without 
a word, the money explaining itself. 

A prominent lumber dealer sent a check, with the 
prayer that it might make some sad home happy. A 
wealthy lady on Eighteenth and Capitol avenue sent a 
gift in money. From one of the wealthy homes on Sher- 
man avenue, a large contribution came to help the good 
work. A friend sends $10 in cash and a large box of 
valuable books and toys. A brickman on North Nine- 
teenth street puts it in our power to help many, and the 
editor of the Pawnee Press sends money for the children 
of Omaha. From a dealer in provisions, flour was sent to 
help to gladden the hearts of the needy. 

Time will fail us to tell of the many who contributed 
money, clothing, toys, books, etc. 

The sum reached at least $150, and if the doners 
could have seen what this money did they would feel 
that it was a good investment. Poor workmen who had 
fallen from buildings, and whose wives and children were 
dependent, were given money and food. A widowed 
mother with six children was supplied with provisions 
and gifts for the little ones. 

One mother, who was supporting a sick husband and 
little children, was given a $5 gold piece and a sack of 
flour. 



OUR DUTIES AT CHRISTMAS TIME. 191 

A worthy old Irish woman was presented with a 
turkey for her Christmas dinner, and her hearty " God 
bless you" will not soon be forgotten by the giver. 

The Pawnee City editor's money was invested in two 
pairs of shoes for two little girls whose father had re- 
cently had his leg amputated, disabling him for work, 
while the wife supported the family by washing; some 
toys and provisions were taken in addition. The little 
woman was speechless from surprise, while her face and 
eyes expressed the thanks. 

A poor woman, who had been deserted and was sick, 
was presented with a warm dress for winter. 

A little boy, whose mother was dead, was remembered. 

We wished you could have gone with us to the vicin- 
ity of Twentieth and Pierce streets, and seen the grati- 
tude of those wretched children, which cannot be de- 
scribed. These are the kind of burdens that Jesus 
wants us to bear, and you know of many others. There 
is many a tried and tempted one, whose burden you can 
help to bear. You will find heaven at the door of the 
poor widow, if you supply her wants, or b} r the side of 
your tempted brother, if you are speaking words to cheer 
and help him. 

We all know the divine side of religion, let us practice 
the human side. 




^{ 3izw Start, 



TIC^E take our text from IE Corinthians, v. 17: "Old 
^s tilings have passed away; behold all things have 
become new." And Isaiah I, 1G-17 : "Cease to do evil; 
learn to do well." 

Our subject to-night is, "A Xew Start," First, we 
learn from tip's text that the old has passed away and the 
new has come. This is true at two distinct times, namely, 
when a soul is converted to God, and when the old year 
dies and the new year is born. At midnight, last night, 
God buried the old year. The same hand that buried 
Moses on JSTebo buried 1887. God laid our old friend to 
rest in the sepulchre of the departed years. With one 
hand the Almighty closed the eyes of 1887 and gently 
laid him to rest, while with the other He swung open the 
door of welcome for 1888. The cradle and the grave are 
close together. 

To-day we say tenderly, " farewell" to 1887 and " hail " 
to 1888. While it is sad to part with the old, it is pleas- 
ant to welcome the new. 

Take a hasty glimpse at these two — the old and the 
new. As we take the last look at the face of 1887 let us 
throw something into his grave — a sprig of evergreen to 
show our love for him, but let us throw in, too, our fail- 



A NEW START. 193 

Hires and mistakes and sins. I only want to remember 
■enough of the past to make me wiser and better for the 
future. One hasty glance at the past makes me lift my 
lace to my Heavenly Father with the prayer that He will 
help me start anew for Heaven to-night. I have always 
liked those words out of the best book, u Forgetting the 
things which are behind, I press toward the mark for the 
prize. " It will take us sometime to get acquainted with 
our new friend. More than once we shall write 1887, 
then erase and write 1888. Look at this baby year. He 
comes with silence. His fingers are on his lips. He will 
not tell what he has in store for us, whether good or ill. 
He comes enveloped in a flame of light. Other years 
have been wrapped in a mantle of darkness, while he, 
'like Elijah, rides in a chariot of fire. On his chariot are 
Jesus' words, u Light is come into the world." Never 
did men know the difference between right and wrong as 
they know it to-day. He comes bringing in those chubby, 
childish hands of his marvelous blessings — blessings that 
great true hearts have prayed for. Try to count them. 
They are more than you can number. He comes to us 
bearing precious opportunities that touch body, mind 
and heart, and will affect other souls for eternity. 

I am glad, too, that he will help us in the making of 
manhood, for this child reaches up and places on our 
shoulders grave responsibilities. Have you ever seen a 
man who did not bear a burden ? 

I expect great things of this New Year. I am sure 
lie will bring for us the greatest successes or the greatest 



104 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

failures, but if God be on our side, we cannot fail. We 
remark in the second place as we look into the text and 
into the face of the New Year, that (Jod lays upon us all 
one supreme duty, namely this, that we should "cease to 
do evil and learn to do well." In a word, He wants us 
to take a new start for the right and for Heaven this New 
Year's day. And why not ? Men often make a new be- 
ginning in other lines of effort. Though they have been 
beaten once and again, this does not deter them from 
gathering up their scattered force and facing their 
enemy. 

Robert Hall, while yet a student, was appointed to de- 
liver an address. After proceeding for a short time, 
much to the gratification of his auditory, he suddenly 
paused, covered his face with his hands and exclaimed, 
"O, I have lost all my ideas." His second attempt was 
even a greater failure. But this same man, afterwards, 
for nearly half a century, excited universal attention and 
admiration by the splendor of his pulpit eloquence. We 
know business men who have lost all they had in the 
awful fire that swept away the earnings of years, but the 
next day they went to clearing away the rubbish and 
building anew. When Sheridan rode back from Win- 
chester that day he saw his splendid army in retreat. 
His mind was quickly made up ; he rode the black horse 
down the broken and terror-stricken lines and hurled 
them back into the very teeth of the foe. Many of us 
have been beaten in the battle for right and we almost 
fear to enter the lists again, and well we might if we went 



A NEW START. L95 

alone. But this text is God's tocsin, calling new recruits 
and old veterans and the deserters on to duty. 

God singles us out aud speaks to every class and to 
men of all ages. He asks every one of us to make a new 
start who have in any degree failed. I want to be the 
first man to make this new start. I see so many failures 
in the past. I see such a deep significance in this short- 
life. So I say to all you about me, "Let us make vows 
to God to-day that shall never be broken." The voice of 
conscience, the mercy of our Heavenly Father and the 
truth of the Divine Word all unite to urge us to choose 
God now. Some will ask — I trust many — " How can I 
make this new start f " This truth will help you : When 
you start to meet God, He starts to meet you. And 
mark this, He will go more than half way. And when 
you ask, " How shall I find Him!" His spirit is sent to- 
direct you, and divine power is put into your heart to ena- 
ble you to become a son. 

Start then by kneeling down and giving yourself to 
God in prayer and self-consecration, and God will lift 
you up and make you His child. " Him that cometh 
unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. " 

In conclusion, I would urge you to make the new start 
for Heaven. Two pictures are before you — your worse 
self and your better self. You can even read your own 
features; you know it is yourself. Your choice will fix 
the soul's destiny — choose the right; choose God. 

"Cease to do evil ; learn to do well." 



(areat Failures and their pauses. 



P 



|Y subject to-night is, " Great Failures and their 
Causes." Matthew, vii, 27: "And the rain de- 
scended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and 
beat upon that house, and it fell; and great was the fall 
of it." 

I will first speak of great failures in business. Great 
failures have swept over this country in waves. I am 
told that ninety men out of every hundred fail ; seven 
oarely scrape along, and three get rich. 

In 1857 the failures of great business houses were of 
daily occurrence. About every seventh year since that 
memorable time, disastrous failures have shaken the 
country from center to circumference. But these events 
are not confined to these stated intervals, as the sad 
work of recent years have proven. Look at the long 
record of great failures within the past decade. 

Such bankers and business men as Jay Cook & Co. 
close their doors. Great banks in California fail. Fitch 
& Hatch of New York, bankers and dealers in govern- 
ment bonds, go to the wall. Ward goes down and pulls 
a great and honest soldier with him. Such men as 
Matthew 3 [organ & Sons suspend, though this old firm 
has been rated at a million. 



GREAT FAILURES AND THEIR CAUSES. 197 

On the doors of Cornelius K. Garrison is written " In 
the hands of an assignee." Once this man owned the 
Missouri Pacific. In 1879 he sold the interest he then 
held in this road to Jay Gould for four millions. In 
1884 he is prostrated by sickness, old age, and debt. 

Yesterday, a man was president of a great railroad, 
and, supposed to be worth his millions. To-day, he is 
shattered in health and ruined financially. Yesterday,. 
a man drove a dashing team, and had a name that carried 
power in the circles of trade. To-day, if every man had 
his due, he would be penniless. 

Let us now look into the cause of these failures. I 
name speculation as the very first one. Christian men 
speculate with borrowed money. We have no right to 
take the property of others and turn it into kites to fly, 
and bubbles to blow. Speculation will break the best 
man at last. An oil king in Pennsylvania, speculated 
for twenty years, but failed at the end of that time. 
When will the men of this country learn, that the road 
to speculation is a dangerous one. Wall street is the 
place for roguery, trickery and the wildest speculation, 
where only men of iron make-up can stand. I am not 
surprised that the money bags are closing their mouths,, 
these days. The speculations which have prevailed in 
city and country, demand such closing. 

Another cause of these financial failures is dishonesty. 
God spoke the truth when he said, "As the partridge 
sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that get- 
teth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the- 
midst of his days, and in the end shall be a fool." 



198 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

Men fail, in many cases because they want to fail. If 
a man fails once, he is poor ; the second time he is com- 
fortable, and a third failure makes him rich. Of course 
there are exceptions, but as a rnle, no honest institution 
need fail. Usually, an honest house will make friends 
who will stand by it when storms come, knowing that 
every dollar will be accounted for. For example, a few 
years ago the Savings Bank of this city was called un- 
safe. But in that hour of distrust, many friends said to 
the bank officials, " Pay out the money ; we are read)' to 
help you." The depositors could not break the bank, be- 
cause the institution was honest. It is seldom that you 
can break a thoroughly honest house, or a thoroughly 
honest man; whereas knavery and trickery will at last' 
relieve any man of his money, and it ought to. 

Again, extravagant living is a most fruitful cause of 
failure. Ward lived like a prince ; no clothes too fine 
for him, no carriage too elegant. The very ground was 
too "earthly" for him to step on, and this same extrava- 
gance finally clothed him in a striped suit. In the cities 
ladies go to church and wipe the tears on handkerchiefs 
which cost $150, and some ladies wear shawls which cost 
from $100 to $3,000. 

The men smile and are glad that the sisters are get- 
ting it, but I have to say, that the men do their full 
share of throwing money to the winds, the husbands 
of these very women, wear boots too tight to walk in the 
ways of righteousness. They go to the club and stay 
until the small hours of the morning, drinking the oldest 
wines and smoking the most costly cigars. 



GREAT FAILURES AND THEIR CAUSES. 190 

Men in this country have almost forgotten the mean- 
ing of the word " economy." Once, if a man got a thou- 
sand a year, he saved two hundred ; to-day, if he gets a 
thousand, he spends fifteen hundred. We are rapidly 
becoming a nation of spendthrifts. We run in debt, 
and buy all we can get trusted for in prosperous days. 
Then when the hard times come, we fail. Even some 
preachers, not very far from this town, are driving horses 
and carriages they never paid for. 

Notice in the second place, " Great failures in Charac- 
ter." If there is a failure at all in character, it is a great 
failure. A business failure is bad, but a character failure 
is worse. A man is not really poor until he has lost his 
honor. Then he is a beggar, indeed. 

Eight along with business failures you will see these 
more costly character failures, and this is the awful 
failure Jesus is talking about in the text. It is sad to 
see a block of brick and mortar fall, but it is infinitely 
worse, to see a man under that wall. 

The Bible has* recorded many of these failures. Here 
is a King's son — a man of royal blood, fine address, mag- 
nificent appearance, splendid possibilities and opportuni- 
ties, but he fails — and to-day, even, we hear the sad 
lament of his royal father. " O my son Absalom, my 
son, my son Absalom. Would God I had died for thee. 
O Absalom my son, my son ! " 

Looking again in the Divine Word we see the son of 
Kish. He stands head and shoulders above the people. 
Though from the ranks of the commonwealth, he was 



200 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

bora a king. He does well for a time, but eventually 
goes into bankruptcy, and one day the tragedy culminates 
on Mt. (iilboa. 

These character failures in the history of our land are 
many — Burr, Fisk, Tweed and thousands of others. 
We are sad as we say it, but there are many to-day, even 
in our own city, going into bankruptcy as to character. 
So few men can stand prosperity. Give them an extra 
dollar, or an office, and they want to go to hell without 
delay. They are in a hurry to get there. Failures in 
character are all about us. 

You know the causes : a fool can read these. They 
depend upon themselves. They think the judgment 
will never come, whereas every day is a judgment 
day. They build on the sand instead of the rock ; on 
the world instead of on Jesus. When will men learn I 

Lastly, I speak in brief of the awful failure in respect 
to the interests of the eternal soul, when the business 
fails, and the good name and character suffers, the soul 
is blackened and lost. The lost world is full of such souls. 
These soul failures are the persons who failed in charac- 
ter, but who would not go to the character mender and 
builder. The wagon broke down opposite a shop, but 
they would not go in and have it repaired, and the injury 
reaches to the soul and lasts for ever. 

In conclusion, let me say, we do not need to be bank- 
rupt in soul. Jesus by his suffering and death has laid 
the greatest wealth at our feet, and he will honor every 
draft to which he has attached his signature. " They 



GREAT FAILURES AND THEIR CAUSES. 201 

that trust in the Lord shall be as Mt. Zion, which can- 
not be removed, but abidetli forever." Be careful how 
you live. 

" A sacred burden is the life ye bear. 
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly, 
Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin ; 
But onward, upward, till the goal you win." 

Build your house upon the rock and not upon the sand. 




[Elements of Success, 



/pTOUNG ladies and gentlemen of the Omaha com- 
2$ mercial college : I am very glad to meet you and 
to spend this hour with you. I want to congratulate 
you on the excellent opportunity here afforded you to 
secure a business education. I am very glad that I can 
call the professors of this institution my personal friends. 
I am not at all surprised, that this college has prospered 
under their wise management, nor do I wonder that within 
the past four years two thousand students have received 
instruction here for a longer or shorter time, and of these 
four hundred young men have been sent out capable of 
filling responsible positions and are now doing well. 

Looking into your faces as I do to-night, brings up be- 
fore me in panoramic view my own college life. I left 
my father's farm at nineteen years of age. My fortune 
consisted of a fixed purpose to do right, a small trunk 
full of clothes and five dollars in money. I took a three 
years' preparatory course and four years in the classical 
course. I worked my own way through and paid my 
own bills. I do not think it is a misfortune for a boy to 
be poor, it is ofttimes rather a great help, for in that case 
the boy has neither leisure nor money to go to the devil 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 203 

with. When I came out of college I had good health, a 
sheepskiu and ten dollars in money, and with this im- 
mense capital I went into my present business. I have 
only two regrets as I look over my school days ; first, I 
did not make all that work as practical as I might have 
done. To-night I would gladly trade some knowledge of 
Latin and Greek for the ability to write a good hand in 
plain English. My writing is absolutely fearful. One of 
my professors looked at it a few years ago and said : 
" Well it is peculiar. There is nothing like it in heaven 
or on earth." This hand I write has been a disadvant- 
age all along. I suppose you have heard of the trouble 
Horace Greeley got into on account of his illegible hand. 
It is said he wrote a business letter to an old farmer. 
The farmer could not read it so he gave it to his two 
daughters to read. They made it out that it was on offer 
of marriage to the oldest girl, and she wrote back that 
everything was all right. Mr. Greeley having a good deal 
of chivalry in his makeup, performed his part of the pro- 
gramme. If I were taking a ' course ' again, I would get 
mind discipline out of practical studies. My other mis- 
take was this, I did not put the value on those years of 
study that I should now. I should do more thorough 
work, or try to at least if I had the ground to go over. 
Indistinct images of truth are worthless. The thing we 
know, alone, is of value. But those days have gone, and 
with their successes and failures must stand as they are 
written. The present only is ours. 

Our subject to-night is "Elements of Success." Lit- 



-04 SHOTS FROM THE PULPIT. 

erally the word "Success" means the prosperous issue or 
favorable termination of anything. At the present day, 
the word has practically two definitions. "Success" in 
the eyes of many means gain ; means money without re- 
gard to conscience or character. " Success " is only the 
synonym for fine clothes, magnificent houses and grounds 
and splendid turnouts. Or it means a place and name in 
the political history of the country. Thousands of people 
in this city fall in with this idea of " success." If this be 
success, may God deliver us from it ! Some of the worst 
failures we have ever seen have been called successful by 
the crowd. But there is a higher success. In my judg- 
ment the successful man may be rich or poor, for money 
is not the chief factor. Did a man ever ask if Andrew 
Marvel, of England, was rich ! Do we estimate Lincoln 
or Garfield or Logan any the less because they were not 
millionaires. Ah ! no. Success means rather an attain- 
ment of character. It means integrity and nobility and 
purity of soul. Then as a natural consequence the living 
and oftentimes wealth follows. If you want my opinion 
of a successful man, you must tell me what he is rather 
than what he has. You yourselves can name the ele- 
ments which produce this success I describe. 

If you be well born, and well taught in your childhood, 
so much in your favor. 

Fix your aim high. Let it be the development of soul 
nobility. Then get ready, as you are doing here at this 
college. Let your calling be one for which you have an 
especial fitness or liking, and do not shun the humbler 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 205 

walks of life. I know a teamster and a blacksmith in 
this city who are both noble men, and they have already 
secured a competency. Oh, if you young men would 
only have a high ideal ! Not so much as to the business 
you choose as to the manhood you shall develop in your 
respective lines. 

Again, success, to-day, demands a brave heart. This 
world is full of cowards. 

Many men now are much like that fellow who climbed 
the rafters while his wife killed the bear with the poker, 
and then came down and said, "Wife I believe you and 
me together could kill the devil." Never fear. There 
is a place for you if you will win it and take it. 

Cultivate a strong will. You must have a backbone. 
Andrew Jackson had only one bone in his back and that 
was a straight one. Frederick the Great is a good ex- 
ample of will power. He said, "As long as there is a 
man in Prussia, he shall carry a gun, and as long as 
there is a horse left he shall draw artillery." And you 
know the result of that seven years' war. 

You must have a genius for hard work. Charlotte 
Cushman said, "They say it is genius, but I tell you it is 
nothing but sweat." Labor is the condition of all im- 
provement. The great names of the world were none of 
them idlers. 

Then do your work well. It does not matter so much 
what you do, as how you do it. The value of skilled 
labor is estimated on a democratic basis. President 
Eliot, of Harvard University, the cook at the Parker 



206 SHOT FROM THE PULPIT. 

House Restaurant, and Mary T. Booth, who edits Har- 
per's Bazar, each get $4,000 a year. 

Be a gentleman in your heart. The true gentleman 
will win his way where the boor will fail. Keep free 
from the vices of the day. Thousands are being en- 
trapped all about you. 

Keep your soul pure. Piety is the Corinthian pillar of 
success. By this Daniel won his way from captivity to 
be prime minister of three kingdoms. Without piety 
man fails of the great prize — of rest and Heaven at last. 




